535-03 Page 87Page 18, The Ingersoll Times, November to, 1976
yr oaie sign appear, disappear and reappear on the old mill in when the village was the hub of industrial activity in the cer^
Beachville, but it coatiuues to stand, a landmark of bygone days of Oxford County.
Pioneer style
syrup -making
draws 1,800
Free Press Woodstock Bureau
SWEABURG — About 1,800 people showed
up on the weekend to eat pancakes and watch
maple syrup being made at the ninth annual
(Vest Oxford Women's Institute syrup festival. /,9��
Among them was Wilfred Smith, 78, of To-
t l!Y
onto, a veteran of syrup -making. Ills experi-
ence goes back to the days when he was grow-
ing up in Vermont and people used teams of
horses to get into the bush to gather sap.
The newer methods, which use oil and pro-
pane -fired evaporators, don't compare for in-
terest with the old-fashioned kettlesandeva.
porators, Smith said.
"But," he conceded, "1 do think it makes a
bctter-tasting syrup."
In his childhood, he recalled, the snow was
often so deep In the bush at sap -gathering time
that the first day was spent just breaking
(rails. And while the sap was running, there
wasn't time for anything more than cat -naps
in the sugar shanty.
Coffee pots were perked by putting them to
the boiling sap, and meals of eggs and pota-
toes were cooked by placing them in the sap in
Ilie open pan evaporator.
Smith said he believes In the medicinal pow-
ers of maple syrup, used by Indians as a
spring tonic and a cure for scurvy.
"I do believe they were right." he said, ,be-
cause shortly before the sap starts to run, I
get pretty run down and a few{eeds of fresh
syrup sort of cleanses the system."
This year's syrup festival, held at the farm
of George Jakeman, included wagon rides and
it erof( and hobby sale at the Swcaburg school.
W
Last Thursday's light afternoon snowfall highlighted the scenic features of the old Whi law's Mill in
I-aehville.