Saturday, February 13, 2010

sepia saturday, palestine'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 were named Palestine, both male and female, at the turn of the century. So, it was not particularly 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.

The photo below shows Pal tapping into a maple tree on his "Stockwell Farm" in Howard County, Indiana in about 1920. The sap was cooked in a large vat in the woods, in a spot the family called “sugar camp”. It took a whopping 30 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

Several years ago, a friend of my daughter introduced me to the pleasure of pure maple syrup. After you have tasted the real thing, you can never again eat the icky bottled pancake stuff, we Americans
all know as "syrup". The genuine article is especially delicious wintry mornings, on a nice bowl of steel-cut oats with walnuts and dried cranberries.

For more Sepia Saturday participants click [HERE].

61 comments:

  1. Willow, I definetly see the resemblance. Even their stature is similar. Handsome men of good character : )

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  2. Mmm - I think I might have to make some crock pot oatmeal soon with syrup in it...

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  3. Really nice your sepia saturdays!:)

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  4. Great photos, Willow! The top one of "Pal" is so distinguished looking. He does look like The Bach.

    We are big maple syrup afficionados around here - living very close to Mennonite country where they make it every year and sell it by the roadside. We buy it at the health food store and you are so right; once you taste the real thing, you can never go back to Mrs. Butterworth, or Aunt Jemima!

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  5. Yum! maple syrup. What a wonderful photo--I remember reading about him before. I love love love old photos like this.

    Your notes reminded me--I bought Joe some steel-cut oats the other day and when I came home, he had thought they were "instant-instant" and he only cooked 'em about 1 minute--he said they were like rocks. I cracked up--I can't even imagine how sick I'd feel if I'd cooked them like that and tried to digest those. He kills me.

    Happy Valentine's day and have a great weekend, Willow! xo

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  6. Sue, that's hilarious! It's a wonder Joe has any teeth left after eating raw steel cut oats. They are like rocks! hehe

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  7. Hey, LadyCat, you should get The Bach to grow a big ol' handlebar mustache like Palestine's!

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  8. Palestine is a good name. Somehow, he doesn't look as though any other name would fit.

    I've never tried real maple syrup, but I might have to put that right.

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  9. LOVE maple syrup! Of course, here in Canada, we get the real stuff - usually from the farmers market Saturday mornings. I like to drizzle it on apples before I put them in the oven and bake them. Goes great with french toast. Mmmmm.....

    I do occasionally buy what we call table syrup as well, but we give it to the children because it's so much cheaper and they dont know the difference yet. :)

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  10. I've never had pure maple syrup from the source. I'll bet it's quite a change from the super sweet concoction we consume. Great piece of history.

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  11. Willow, You're the best. It would have been a true delight to know Pal and also that dashing son of his, Uncle Guy! I'm sure you get your camera buffness from both of these dear ancesters. Pal just brought in some maple syrup.
    Time to go have some pancakes out on the farm! Happy Valentine's Day
    :) The Bach

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  12. Great aportrait, but I also like the "environmental portrait"!

    I never ever used anything but the real stuff. Even here in Vienna. Sunday mornings it is French toast, breakfast links and maple sirup, sometimes pancakes. A little bit on cubes and roasted sweet potatoes (with onions, garlic, fresh thyme and hot pepper flakes) also goes a long way. I am forever grateful that maple sirup (from the Vermont or Canada) is available here. Compared to (not so fresh!) pecans, it's almost a bargain. ;-)

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  13. Bach, this post made me so hungry for maple syrup I had to whip myself up some homemade buttermilk pancakes tonight for supper! They were heavenly. Sigh.

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  14. Please forgive the mistakes.

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  15. Merisi, you are talking to the world's worst typo queen. I didn't see any mistakes!

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  16. I never had maple syrup until about 10 years ago and I admit, it was stuff from the grocery store but it did say pure maple syrup. We always used pure can syrup when I was a kid and that's what I bought when my kids were growing up. Living in the south it seemed right to use cane syrup.

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  17. What a nice looking gentleman. I, too, now have a yen for pancakes and maple syrup.

    ps- The Temple Grandin movie was fabulous! Thanks for the recommendation. I agree that Clair Danes should get an Emmy nomination.

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  18. Must go make pancakes now! With ice cream and real maple syrup. No wonder the real thing costs so much more...all that effort. Palestine Hanna is one of the all-time great names!

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  19. A handsome guy who really knew how to carry a mustache!

    We have a road near us named Sugar Camp ( also a Puncheon Camp and a Bone Camp -- I'm wondering about the latter...)

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  20. willow i absolutely love these pics...that moustache is amazing..smiles. maple syrup...mmmm...

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  21. Vicki, Puncheon Camp, did that have to do with moonshine? Bone Camp?! I can imagine.

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  22. absolutely real maple is the best, not contest! and why did I think willow was in Texas?

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  23. No, not Texas, Pat. Willow Manor is in snow bound Central Ohio!

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  24. Willow, your Pal was a good looking fellow...his mustache would do a walrus proud. I bet he was pretty proud of it himself.

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  25. pal has great eyes!!!!! steven

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  26. We've fewer producers of the pure maple round here and most comes down from Canada or Maine...but yeah, there is no comparison with the artificial gobley-goo!

    Great photo as well :)

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  27. Pal is seriously gorgeous! Looks like Paul Neuman. I will dream of Pal, his cool name and the aroma of maple syrup...Sweet dream!

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  28. Mmm. I had some pure maple syrup with chocolate chip waffles the other morning. Delish.

    And lovely pictures. Your blog is such a treat to visit in so many ways!

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  29. You know, I never realised that was how Maple Syrup was created. Do locals still produce homemade syrup this way in your neck of the woods?
    Pal looks a fine ,solid & assured man.
    Happy Sepia Saturday Willow!

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  30. The real syrup sounds delicious..As I quite like the bad stuff I can imagine the good to be heavenly! xv

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  31. Fascinating, truly fascinating. I don't think I had ever even thought of the origins of maple syrup and the last thing I imagined was that it was tapped from the tree. And what a splendid moustache - it puts mine to shame.

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  32. That is quite a moustache Palestine has!

    Real maple syrup is tasty but, Southern girl that I am, I like pure cane sytup which is so thick, it barely pours. We used to mash it up with butter for our fresh homemade biscuits.

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  33. ooh, what a lovely post...the sepia photos go well with a hint of maple syrup in the air...I'm hungry now....

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  34. What a good looking man, Willow.

    Mmmmm, crumpets, bacon and maple syrup.

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  35. willow,
    i am beginning to wonder about my own'Family TREE'.HAHAHAHA
    but, as far as maple syrup goes.....yummo.
    my mom has HOURS of maple in maine stories.
    i prefer yours....
    short and sweet.

    btw
    i love sepia saturdays
    and you
    XX

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  36. What a strong and good looking man. And those steely eyes! What a Pal, Willow!

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  37. what a splendid moustache.

    the maple syrup picture makes me think of Laura Ingalls Wilder, I loved those books as a child

    (never liked the TV version tho...)

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  38. Pal is my idea of a fine upstanding man. He looks so distinguished. Can't comment on the maple syrup except to say it looks as though I'm missing something.

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  39. maybe palestine's parents were traveling through palestine texas, or some other place named palestine when they conceived him???

    i've heard many stories of the reasons why children who are named after places are named such, and seems that the conception story is quite popular. ha ha.

    the two photos are marvelous - I especially like the one of pal tapping the tree! i have a drill like that somewhere that was my grandfather's

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  40. I love the name Palestine! I have relations named Esselmont! And I'm wanting some of that syrup... it's not really an English thing though.

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  41. Yes, I agree with Kat...handsome men! Wouldn't you have loved to have tasted some of his syrup? Yum!

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  42. That's a wonderful picture of your two greats grandfather, Willow. Doesn't he look proud! I think we should all aim to look more like that these days, don't you?
    Blessings, Star

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  43. What a looker Palestine was! And that name--extraordinary.

    Real maple syrup, indeed. The faux stuff is an entirely different species.

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  44. Maple syrup is delicious on butter fried eggs sunny side up. Evidently a Canadian turned me on to these some time ago.
    We have a portrait of my great great grandfather, also with a splendid moustache, but only silhouettes of earlier grandparents.

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  45. Marc, I think silhouettes are wonderful. Do you have those of your early ancestors framed and displayed?

    Okay, I'll try some maple syrup on some sunny side ups! mmm.

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  46. is this a repost? sounds and looks familiar. of course VT and NH are big maple syrup producers and a few folks still do it on one or two trees in their yard. A local farmer taps the trees on my brother's land and I usually do a maple sugaring post when it all happens. Soon I think??????

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  47. Willow, One of my favorite childhood memories was traveling up to Vermont from Massachusetts to tap the trees during maple season. We would go thru the woods at night (not sure why?) and collect the sap and make syrup,throw it in the snow and eat it right away and make maple candy. It was magical. I miss the closeness to nature I always felt as a child. My world was seamless when it came to my being and nature.
    I do so love your blog.. the colors,textures,writings pull me in and that is a wonderful gift you have.

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  48. I love the contrast of the two photos. Based on the expression on his face in the portrait, I suspect he wasn't too fond of being all spiffed up in his Sunday best and was happier out in his work clothes gathering syrup. I love the photographers backdrop in the portrait as well.

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  49. Junk Thief, I come from a long line of photographers. This one was most likely taken by his son, Glenn. It was taken outside, with some kind of tapestry draped behind.

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  50. You're right, Suki, this is a reposting. I am digging out all my old sepia photo posts for Sepia Saturday. Good excuse, don't you think?

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  51. "Pal" is a great for-short name!

    I have been a maple syrup lover my whole life. My grandparents brought my mom up RIGHT in that regard!! But whoooo it's expensive. And you go through it so fast!

    Maybe I need to stop putting it on spaghetti.

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  52. Beautiful images .

    I'm thinking those steel cut oats
    sound pretty good for lunch,too.

    Off to the kitchen.

    Jjj
    (who agrees you can
    NEVER go back to that faux syrup)

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  53. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  54. Love these photos. Don't it make you want to rush out to the nearest farm auction and buy that old box of pictures?

    When I taught over in Greene County, North of Xenia, one of the academic teachers make sugar syrup each year and had a stand of sugar maples for that purpose. We always bought some from her each season. Our allotment. You are right. No comparison.

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  55. Hello there dear Willow! In addition to literally being snowed under with papers to grade for the past ten days (progress reports due last Thursday), yesterday I was snowed in...in Alabama! No school because we had it as part of a 4 day weekend ... so no make-up as other schools will face! It was a dreamy, wonderful sort of Friday and great fun to see the white stuff coming down all day long!
    I think your great grandfather Pal looks very much like Mark Harmon of NCIS! What a handsome man! This is a really clear and detailed photo! Quite the portrait!
    Did you say maple syrup? I guess it's pancakes for Sunday morning!

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  56. Great photos & history, Willow--I especially like the photo of him tapping the tree-- & you're so right about real maple syrup; we tapped our trees when I was growing up in Vermont. It's a lotta work, but worth it.

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  57. Well timed post.... we try to get out to the local syrup farms here, the sap begins to run with these longer days.

    The photos are incredible, I have many old photos that were passed down to me, but not very much information . You're inspiring me to put together some thing.

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  58. Willow, Great minds think alike. I did a Maple syrup post,
    and dated it For march, That's Maple Syrup Sunday..Did ya know I did the Maple thing in 1998 at our farm.You can't compare the fresh to store.
    ..It was a wonderful time in my life.Fun.

    yvonne
    That photo, his eyes are beautiful..Good looking man.

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  59. What a handsome man! I love the photo of him tapping the sugar maple.

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  60. Great photos. I think he looks so distinguished. My father helped hie parents with syrup making but I have never tasted it.

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  61. Oh, I love your grandfather's face. So much energy still singing in that portrait. Poetic.

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)