Pal's Syrup

This is my Great-Great-Grandfather, Palestine Hanna. I have

always been intrigued by his unique given name. Census records

show only a hand full had the name Palestine, both male and female,

at the turn of the century, so it was not a trendy name at the time.

Was it biblical or maybe geographical? I guess I'll never know. I do

know, however, that his nickname was "Pal", which I think is so

endearing. This photo shows him tapping into a maple tree on his

"Stockwell Farm" in Howard County, Indiana in about 1920. The

sap was cooked in a vat in the woods in a spot the family called

“sugar camp”. It took 30 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

A friend of my daughter introduced me to the joys of pure maple

syrup. After you have tasted the real thing, you can never again eat

the bottled pancake stuff we Americans all know as "syrup". The

genuine article is especially delicious on a nice bowl of steel-cut oats

with walnuts and dried cranberries!