As the first in a series of public oral histories at The Curran Homestead, author Wilbur Wolf, of Orlond, ME, will be offering signed copies of his Memoir of a Farm Boy as well as sharing some of its details in this talk and slide presentation at The Curran Homestead Living History Farm and Museum, Fields Pond Rd., Orrington on May 28 at 6:30 PM. Wolf’s book, which was originally conceived as a memoir for his children, documents his family farm experiences in the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with the almost two hundred year history of his parents’ upstate New York dairy, he offers details of early mechanization, animal husbandry, small town life, and poignant human relations in a rural community of the past.
According to Dr. Robert Schmick, Volunteer Director of Education at The Curran Homestead, “Wolf’s experiences are becoming more unique with each passing day in America as small family farms are consumed by corporate owned agro-businesses and many more are simply re-purposed for residential subdivisions and strip malls. It is not that the times that Wolf writes of were simpler; it is that there was a close knit community on hand to comfort people during good and bad times, people discovered their own entertainments, and there was both a necessity and personal pride in earning a living from the land and ones own industry that is no longer commonplace. There were a greater number of farms per capita in Maine and the rest of the US, and people not only had the ability to grow more of their own food but supply their local community with lower cost staples not tethered to world petroleum prices.”
Schmick added that “it is our mission at The Curran Homestead to preserve the traditions of the family farm, self-reliance, and ingenuity which were part of Wolf’s experiences, and through continued public talks like this we hope to both preserve a bit of this past so that it may continue to mold future generations. Come pick up a copy of Memoir of a Farm Boy, have it signed, and chat with its author Wilbur Wolf. Wilbur may even play a tune or two on one of our early pipe organs after the talk. Coffee and homemade cooked rhubarb on shortbread will be served. Admission is free, but we are an all-volunteer non-profit organization and would appreciate your donations.
New house construction on the Old Main Road, Eddington. Seemingly, a large portion of new homes in our community are pre-fabricated modulars like this one. This particular home has a poured concrete foundation (April, 2009).
The brace bit came loose while tapping the tree. Mr. Schmick tightened it and resumed drilling undetected.
Seanna Williams and Gracie Bowden watch attentively as Mr. Schmick explains how trees are tapped.
Seanna Williams, Gracie Bowden, Christopher Verschoor, and Fallon Eggett listen attentively to a read-aloud about the sap to syrup process at the Eddington Pre-School.
Seanna Williams, Gracie Bowden, Christopher Verschoor, Mackenzie Haynes, and Gabe Schmick look on.
Jamie Fogg, Tanner Butterfield, Genevieve and Gabe Schmick, Mackenzie Haynes, Brian Bates, Mrs. Diana Higgins, and Lacie Folster look on and wait to be called upon.
The sap. There is a faint amber hue to it.
Measuring the sugar content with a hydrometer. I measured 32 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of maple sugar; an impressive sugar content.
We filtered our sap with four coffee filters placed inside of a metal collander; a slow but efficient process.
Our low-tech cooking operation. My grandmother's Presto Pressure Cooker ( circa 1950) on top of the wood stove; it works just fine.
Eddington-made maple syrup; this was what I produced from 9 plus gallons of sap collected.
Gabriel Schmick of Jarvis Gore Drive, Eddington taps a maple using a hand-powered brace.
A hole 3/8 in diameter and two inches deep should do the job.
Gabriel prefers these old style cast metal spouts (spiles) that have a pail hook incorporated in them.
A few taps drives the spout in.
Cold nights and warm sunny days promise a steady sap drip.
With a tree this diameter you can set up two pails; this was one of Gabriel's most productive trees.
Paper wrapper (cover) and title page. Memoir of Col. Jonathan Eddy of Eddington, ME: with Some Account of The Eddy Family, and of The Early Settlers on Penobscot River, by Joseph W. Porter, Augusta: Sprague, Owen, & Nash, 1877.
Polaroid photograph, circa 1970s. This was found under the attic floorboards of the former Treadwell House at 44 Jarvis Gore Drive, Eddington. Any guess who the woman and child are?
