Heart to Hearth Cookery

Making a staghorn sumac spile

Today I attended a hands-on maple sugaring workshop as part of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of The Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (www.alhfam.org)  The first hands-on activity was to make a staghorn sumac spile to tap a maple tree.  Spiles were needed after the gash method of hatcheting a tree for sap was frowned upon as it  oftened killed a maple tree in a few years.  In the picture, I am burning the pith inside the approximately 5 inch piece of staghorn so it becomes a tube.  Later, I would make one end very round to fit snug in the tap hole of the tree.

Visit my website at www.hearttohearthcookery.com