Ojibwe Maple Syrup
White Earth Indian Reservation, Minnesota
Produced by the Ojibwe people
One pint
Each spring, during Moon of the Boiling Sap, known as Iskigamizige-giizis in the Ojibwe language, comes the first harvest of the year when Ojibwe families would return to the same stand of maple trees where they had established sugar bush camps.
Syrup is easily accessed in the woodlands of Minnesota between mid-March and mid-April, when temperatures are above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. Trees are tapped by hand and then boiled. As the sap boils down, it’s constantly watched and stirred. If the boiling sap becomes frothy and starts to boil over, tribe members will tap it down with cedar or balsam branches. It takes about thirty-five gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup.
