![]() The 19th Century witnessed the transition from the old ways of tapping and harvesting to new methods made available by science and research. Pehr Kalm, in a nod to its increasing usage by common people, is credited with coining the lasting name: country sugar. ![]() They took a holistic approach in explaining the natural processes that occur in the sugar maple, the making of maple sugar, and the benefits of maple to human health. The sugar maple tree, maple sap, and maple sugar reached a new level of distinction through the work of renowned scientists like Pehr Kalm, Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, whose treatise Le traité des forêts was published by the Académie royale de France, and Denis Diderot in the venerable Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts). This evolved further when Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix, Monseigneur de la Barre and Joseph-François Lafitau noted the addition of the iron pot to maple sugar production methods. Meanwhile, in New England, Paul Dudley wrote a book devoted to the making of maple sugar from what he called “maple sugar juice”, thereby presenting the most scientific explanation of the process to date. The sap would flow into a receptacle, most often made of birch bark. He said they used an axe to chop a four-inch incision into which would be inserted a trough-shaped piece of wood. While on a visit to Acadia in 1708, the Sieur de Dièreville described the rudimentary technique used by First Nations to tap maple trees. By 1749, these were being widely consumed in New France, according to the Swedish biologist Pehr Kalm. The most striking development of this era (known as the Enlightenment), however, was the scientific perception of the sugar maple tree and the virtues of its sap, and maple sugar. King Louis XIV loved maple sugar candy (a treat called en dragée ) and it was a Montréaler who supplied it to him: Agathe de Repentigny, an inventor and businesswoman (quite rare for the period). Nonetheless, sugar cane cultivation was gradually expanding in Brazil and the Caribbean. Sugar was still a commodity reserved for the nobility and well-off. It should be noted that this coincides with an increase in sugar consumption by the general population, but we’re unable to make a definitive connection. In the second half of the 17 th and into the 18 th Century, there were growing references to the export of maple sugar to France as a type of culinary curiosity. Reports about maple sap grew more numerous during the 1600s, including a slow evolution in the use of maple sugar. He compared the sap to a sugar as sweet as honey. This idea of a drink used to restore one’s energy is also present in Father Le Jeune’s stories about the Montagnais in 1634, saying they ate maple bark during a time of famine. A bit later in the century, Récollet missionary Gabriel Sagard reaffirmed the First Nations’ use of maple sap and described a kind of evaporation process. He also mentions the use of hot stones to cook food. He described the harvest and (what he called) the distillation of maple sap by First Nations. The next first-hand report about maple did not come until 1606, when the lawyer, voyager and writer Marc Lescarbot went to Acadia. In 1557, the cosmographer André Thévet wrote that, according to the First Nations, the tree was known as a “ couton ”. Tasting it, they compared it to a good wine. It was, in fact, a sugar maple and its sap gushed out in great quantity. ![]() The story of maple is inextricably linked to the history of Québec.Įxtant historical sources reveal that, sometime between 15, Jacques Cartier and his fellow explorers were intrigued by what they thought was a large walnut tree, and cut it down. ![]()
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