810-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, March 27, 1993
Linda Williams
Bedford Co. Correspondent
FORD (Bedford Co.) Eight
year-old Rachel Miller sighed
heavily as she wiped the frost
from the widow pane and stared
out at still another snow storm on
this late February day in 1856.
“Ah, but Rachel, it’s a spring
like snow,” consoled her mother
as she pulled her daughter’s blond
hair into tight braids.
“See, it’s heavy, wet, like the
snows in the spring.”
“Oh how I wish it would end,”
Rachel sighed again. “It’s been
weeks since we have seen anyone
except each other.”
it had indeed been a long, hard,
winter. Rachel’s father had died
shortly after harvest last fall.
Pneumonia had been Dr.
Smythe’s diagnosis.
That winter in the Pennsylvania
mountains had been difficult.
Rachel and her mother had to
shovel their way to the bam each
morning and evening to milk the
two cows which kept them well
supplied with milk.
Despite an absence of money,
they did have plenty of food.
There were rows of canned veget
ables and fruits in the basement.
Hams hung in the smoke house
and a dozen or more hens pro
vided an ample egg supply. Wheat
harvested last fall had been
ground into flour for bread and the
cave behind their log home pro
vided shelter for potatoes, carrots,
and a few apples.
Only this morning, Rachel’s
hopes had soared as the sun had
come out and created a warmth
they have not felt since long
before Christmas. Birds had sung
in the tall maple trees near the
house. Then, it had grown colder
It takes lots of stirring to make maple syrup.
Sugarin’ Off Time in Pennsylvania
and the snow started as evening
approached.
“Tomorrow,” said Rachel’s
mother. “We will go to the woods
and see if the sap is starting to run.
This is perfect weather for tapping
trees. We are going to make maple
syrup!”
“Oh,” said Rachel brightening.
“Can we invite the Amicks? Can
we mother? We could have a
“sugarin off” party.
“Why not,” mother beamed. “If
the snow isn’t too deep until
morning, we will begin.”
Light had barely streaked
across the sky when Rachel leaped
from her feather mattress located
in the loft of the Miller home.
After helping mother with the
morning milking and a breakfast
of fresh eggs, bread, and milk,
they headed for the woods.
Already the sun had come out
and, in a repeat of yesterday, was
creating warmth.
In the shed behind the bam they
found the “keelers,” or buckets
Rachel’s father had made and,
using a special boring tool, bored
a hole in the trunk of one of the
trees.
“These warm days and cold
nights are just what we want for
good, sweet, syrup,” said Rachel’s
mother as she wiped the perspira
tion from her brow. Boring a hole
into the trunk was a difficult job
for a woman and a young girl. A
spile, used as a drain from the tree,
was inserted in each hole.
“Now Rachel,” she said. “I
want you to eat lunch and head for
the Amicks. Tell them, the sap is
starting to run and we’ll be “suga
rin off,” by the weekend. When
you get back, we’ll do your school
work.”
It was a three-mile-walk to (he
Amicks, and, while Rachel meant
to get right home, she did enjoy
some talk and play with her friend,
Emily. Emily Amick was almost a
year older than Rachel and a fun
friend. The girls were full of plans
for the upcoming weekend.
The sun was already starting to
set as Rachel headed down the
path for home. Mrs. Amick
wanted her to stay over, but
Rachel knew her mother would be
worried.
By the time she had gone the
first mile, huge snowflakes were
starting to fall.
By the end of the second mile,
darkness had enveloped Rachel.
Hunger pangs were starting to set
in and the swirling snowflakes
along with the white carpeted
earth was disorienting.
Several times, Rachel wandered
off the path she normally
traversed between her home and
the Amicks.
Tears were beginning to slide
down her freckled cheeks and her
braids were freezing stiff. The first
snowflakes had only made her
hair wet, now she was freezing.
Her feet felt numb inside her rub
ber boots.
In the woods which covered the
last mile of her journey, Rachel
found one tree looking exactly
like another.
She was so tired and cold she
wanted to give up and lie down
and go to sleep when, suddenly,
her foot hit something solid
beneath the maple tree. It was one
of the keelers she and her mother
had placed in the woods this
morning.
Elated with joy, Rachel began
retracing the route she and her
mother had followed. At each tree,
she would stop and feel for the
wooden spile which they had
placed in the trees.
Then, she saw it, a candle glow
ing in the window.
With relief, Rachel ran the last
few steps into the warmth of the
log house.
It was a worried mother who
gathered her little girl in her arms.
Hot bean soup flavored with salt
pork was simmering on the old
cook stove and fresh bread was
browning in the oven. The combi
nation of scents was heavenly to
Rachel’s cold nose.
Mother decided to forego read
ing and writing lessons that day.
Instead, she helped a tired daught
er to a warm bed.
By the time Saturday came
around. Rachel had recovered
from her ordeal. The Amicks
arrived early in the morning carry
ing baskets of food, smoked ham,
eggs pink from the juice of canned
red beets, pies made with canned
berries, and plenty of cider for
simmering on the stove.
For the next three days, only
Mr. Amick went home to do his
own farm chores. Otherwise, the
Amicks who included Mrs.
Amick, Emily, and three, strong,
older brothers, carried sap into the
shed where a huge fire was
roaring.
The water had to evaporate in
order for the sap to turn to syrup. It
took SO gallons of sap to create
one gallon of syrup.
Rachel and Emily stirred until
their arms ached. Just when they
were beginning to wonder if the
syrup was really worth this much
hard work, Mrs. Amick gave them
a small cup of syrup.
“Go on girls,” she smiled.
“You’ve been working hard. Go
on, make some Spotza.” Spotza
was what happened when you
poured the syrup into a dish of
pure, white, snow. It was a taste
treat beyond compare in those
days prior to stores stuffed with
chocolate.
The sap had stopped running
All About
Sweet tastes have always been a Com is also used as a sweeten
welcome treat. er. You have probably sampled
In Rachel’s day, “sweet” was a some com syrup, used in many
lot more difficult to achieve than it recipes. We grow a lot of com m
is today. Pennsylvania, but it is even more
Maple syrup was used to plentiful in the Midwest,
sweeten oatmeal, baked beans, We still make a lot of maple
carrots, sweet potatoes, and as a syrup in Pennsylvania. The states
sauce on pancakes. which make the most maple syrup
But, because it took a lot of in the United States are Vermont
hard work, it had to be used and Ohio,
sparingly. The process for making maple
Actually, sweeteners come syrup is still very long and a lot of
from various other sources all hard work. Modem ways of heat
grown on farms in some part of ing and more modem methods of
America. collecting the sap have made it a
Sugar cane grows in many of little easier,
our southern states and on the if you have maple trees on your
island state of Hawaii. farm, you might ask your parents
Sugar beets are especially plen- t o help you tap a tree,
tiful on Midwestern farms. This is the lime of year to do it.
Home Alone?
peephole to see who’s there.
* Talk through the door to find
out who’s there and what they
want. Don’t open the door.
* Don’t be fooled by a request
to use the bathroom or telephone
Say it’s not possible and direct the
person to the nearest public facili-
NEWARK, Del. If you are
home alone, you should be careful
how you answer the phone or
doorbell. Here are some guide
lines to follows;
* Answer the phone pleasantly,
but don’t give your name. m
♦ Never tell a caller that you’re
home alone.
* Tell the caller that your parent
can’t come to the phone at the mo
ment.
* Take the name and phone
number of the caller.
* Don’t give anyone your par
ent’s work phone number. If the
call seems urgent, call your parent
immediately to relay the message.
* If the same person calls more
than once and you don’t know the
person, call your parent.
* If someone calls with a prank
call, hang up immediately and call
your parent. Don’t answer the
phone or door until your parent
gets home.
If the doorbell rings, follow
these rules.
* Be sure the door is always
locked.
* Look through the window or
Q, u
before the Amicks packed up their
belongings and their share of the
syrup to head home.
No longer was it snowing in the
evening. Instead, the sun, now
climbing high in the sky was mak
ing every day feel a little more like
spring was in the air.
It would be another season of
hard work planting seeds in the
ground to provide food for another
winter ahead. But, Rachel knew,
they would also find time for fun
and friends. Life was like that on
an early Pennsylvania farm.
Sweetners
* Never let anyone in unless
you’ve been told to expect that
person, even if it’s someone you
know.
* If someone says he or she is
making a delivery or coming to re
pair something and you weren’t
expecting anyone, don’t let that
person in.
* If the person is someone you
know or says your parents asked
him or her to stop by, call your
parents and check.
* If you’re expecting a delivery
or repair person, have the indivi
dual slip an ID card under the
door.
* If someone continues knock
ing, call a neighbor or the police
for help.
* Don’t be embarrassed when
you don’t let people in.
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