Long before the European settlers came to North America,
the Indian tribes of eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States discovered how to
gather the sap from maple trees and make it into syrup. The story goes that one spring
day, a little squirrel climbed the trunk of a maple tree, bit into a branch, and began to
drink. An Indian looking up from under the tree wondered why the squirrel was doing this -
there was a freshwater spring nearby. Deciding to imitate the squirrel, he made a slash in
the tree with his knife. What a surprise! The only sugar his tribe had ever tasted until
then had been wild fruit - but here was a tree that wept sweet, crystal tears! What's
more, he had found a cure for the scurvy that often plagued his people in the spring. And
all because he had watched a squirrel quenching its thirst with maple sap... and followed
its example!
This brief tale of how maple syrup was discovered is
confirmed by the great Quebec naturalist and scholar Marie-Victorin, who wrote and
illustrated an early Quebec herbal, Flore laurentienne. He clearly states that the Indians
discovered maple syrup and taffy thanks to a red squirrel. And it is true that when a
branch on a sugar maple breaks under the weight of built-up ice, the wound seeps in the
spring. The sap from this natural "tap" continually follows the same path, which
may run right down to the base of the tree. Day after day, the water evaporates under the
warm spring sun, leaving a trail of maple taffy -which the red squirrels gobble eagerly.
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