Customer Reviews

The Maple Sugar Book: Together With Remarks on Pioneering As a Way of Living in the Twentieth Century (Good Life Series)

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This book is a description of way the Nearings earned hard cash to sustain their homesteading project. When they first built their homestead in Vermont in the early 1930s, they thought they might make the cash income for purchasing things they couldn't grow on the farm by selling wood. However, they soon found themselves owners of a sugar maple bush, and the family who had been tapping the sap up until then showed them the ropes of the maple sugaring business. It wasn't long before they discovered that they could earn their annual cash needs during the six week sugaring season, leaving the rest of the year free to grow food, construct farm buildings, and write.

The book starts with a history of sugar making. Then it includes some how-to information (current as of the 1940s). This section includes chapters on maintenance of the sugar bush, equipment for sugaring, sap and weather, making sugar, making syrup, and marketing. The book closes with a section that describes some of the philosophy of the Nearing's homesteading project, especially those aspects related to maple sugaring. And in the end, there are a few recipes for using maple syrup.

Because of Scott Nearing's academic training and experience, the book has an academic flavor, and the chapters on the history of sugaring are quite well documented. The details in the book about sugaring aren't quite sufficient for rank newbies to take off and try to start their own sugaring operation- -if you want to know exact details about constructing a sugar shack or using an evaporator, it would be better to look for a more technical book with a recent publication date. The book's main value is for those who wish to learn more about how the Nearings put their thoughts about cash income and bread labor into action. With that in mind, the book is truly a classic, and well worth reading many times through.

This may be the best resouce for tapping and make maple sugar ready for your kitchen table. Very easy book to read.