The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) hosted the opening of its second annual Sugar Bush (Iskigamizigan) Camp March 13 and 14. Sugar Bush Camp events will continue for the final two days this Friday and Saturday, March 20-21.
Presented by the GTB Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Department and GTB Cultural Department with support from the USDA, community members are able to celebrate the Anishinaabe sugar bush tradition through hands-on learning and various activities. People were able to experience maple sap processing and syrup making throughout the day and had the opportunity to attend daily workshops including birch bark basket making, woodworking stir paddle making, winter mitten sewing, as well as story telling sessions. Attendees learned about how the ancestors of GTB citizens processed maple sugar using traditional techniques, including the use of birch bark baskets to collect sap and sumac stems to use as taps or spiles.
Charles Mcgrath, GTB agriculture coordinator, said they put in 550 taps this year to harvest sap. Mcgrath said their harvest is about a 40 to one ratio, so it takes about 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup. Their first tap yielded 600 gallons of sap, which resulted in roughly 12 gallons of syrup.
