Photo by Alain Bonnardeaux on Unsplash: A metal tap bucket snuggles up to a sugar maple tree as a light snow blankets the ground and a rustic wood shack stands in the background with smoke drifting from the chimney filling the air with the warm scent of fresh maple syrup.
As I write this my husband and I are driving through Michigan and Indiana to Florida for spring break. The landscape of rural Indiana doesn’t strike many as scenic with the endless plains of corn fields which at this time of year are flat and brown, but the lack of color makes the earliest spring blooms that much more striking. Along the edge of the highway, sugar maples are budding out. The red-pink clusters amidst the bare winter stripped branches are the only remarkable color on the landscape right now.
Today (March 20, 2022) is the vernal equinox, which many call the first day of spring, but for indigenous people of this region, the beginning of spring starts earlier when the sugar maple and birch sap begins to flow. They would move from winter grounds to their sugarbush groves in February and March where they would manage on average 900 taps on sugar maples and birch trees to collect the sap and boil it for long hours until it became sweet syrup and granular sugar cakes. Syrup was one of the most important foods for the indigenous: they used it to season fruits, vegetables, fish, and grains. They gave maple sugar candy as gifts and made medicine sweet for sick children. Ely S. Parker, a native Seneca, described the maple tree’s flowing sap as a “sign of the Creator’s renewed covenant.” What they refer to as covenant may be different from the Hebrew/Christian covenants in the Bible, but the sentiment is the same. When sap flows from the maple trees, it is a time of thanksgiving for the blessings that the creator (God) provides.
In Exodus, God promises the Hebrew people “a land flowing with milk and honey” when they flee captivity in Egypt. The promised land of Canaan is in the Middle East; in this region, the “honey” referred to is most-likely “date honey”, a product of date palm trees native to that region, not the honey from bees which most Westerners envision. Similarly, the milk was likely goat’s milk from herds already managed by the Canaanite residents. God guides his people to a region he has made naturally abundant but they must learn the traditional practices of the indigenous people to tap into the full potential of the land’s resources and blessings.
Likewise, Westerners adopted some indigenous practices in America such as maple sugaring. The Kalamazoo Nature Center in Michigan hosts an annual maple sugar festival where a pancake breakfast is served up with real Michigan maple sugar and staff dress in colonial attire to demonstrate early settlement tapping and sugaring methods in a historic and actively managed sugarbush.
For trees like sugar maples that require specific climate conditions, it is predicted that with the currently changing climate they will no longer be able to survive in their current ranges and the areas that can support them will continue to shift farther north and without proper management, we may eventually lose sugar maples and their amber syrup forever. The Kalamazoo Nature Center has been managing their sugarbush with climate change in mind by planting a diverse array of species, not only sugar maples, and sourcing sugar maple saplings from Illinois and Ohio in the hopes that the southern genomes will be more resilient to a warming climate in Michigan.
Beyond preserving natural resources, it’s important to preserve the history and cultures around them as well. In 2022, representatives from a band of Potawatomi were present at the Kalamazoo Nature Center to discuss their history and culture around maple sugaring with the diverse visitors during Maple Sugar Fest. However, much traditional knowledge passed down orally by indigenous Americans has been lost over the years due to displacement of native peoples during European settlement.
Many plants and tree barks in the Americas can be used for traditional medicines in the form of teas or salves that help for a variety of ailments such as coughs and inflammation. Modern medicines are still important but when a child has the sniffles or a cough, many parents give them a concoction of high fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes and who-knows-what-else without question. What happened to the throat-soothing teas sweetened by real maple syrup that has its own antioxidants and health benefits?
Why do children put artificially flavored and dyed corn syrup on their pancakes rather then the taste and natural amber color of real maple syrup? The taste of something sweet is linked to our brain chemistry, releasing serotonin boosting our mood, but different sugars cause our bodies to react differently and can cause our body to crave sugars in an unhealthy way. The western diet is chocked full of artificial sweeteners from corn which has few dietary benefits and is used to make people want more instead of providing a satisfying treat. I wonder what does birch syrup taste like and what other natural sweeteners have we replaced with monocultures of corn crops and chemically-modified sweeteners?
God provides for our basic needs but also created diversity and abundance on the Earth so that we can experience life fully with all of the extras of joy, beauty, and discovery. He made us with complex taste buds linked to brain chemistry not only to protect us from eating poisonous substances but to give us joyful experiences when we eat the blessings from His land. Meals should be experiences shared in communion with one another. It is our responsibility to protect the Earth’s blessings and cultural histories for future generations. Never forget to thank God for every meal, treat, and blessing that His Earth provides.
Sources
Ethics of Biblical Wars: Why Did God Command the Invasion of Canaan in the Book of Joshua? | BibleProject™
Date Sugar in Middle East: Ask A Rabbi: Why Is Israel Called the Land of “Milk and Honey”? | JewishBoston
Studies on Sweeteners:
Natural Sweeteners vs. High Fructose Corn Syrup | Well.org – YouTube
What’s the Difference Between Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup? – YouTube
Eating sweets release serotonin change mood brain chemistry (worldofchemicals.com)
G.R.A.S.S. on Calvary 
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