Skip to Navigation Skip to Content
Decorative woodsy background
March 8th, 2013 What in the Woods is That?

What in the Woods Is That?

Play our biweekly guessing game!

Whatever draws us into the forest—be it birdwatching or logging, hiking or hunting—all of us are unified by the sense of wonder we feel in the outdoors. The forests, fields, and streams of our region are full of mystery, and if you stop and look closely, you’ll see all sorts of oddities.

Below find a picture of one such woodlands curio. Guess what it is and you’ll be eligible to win a Northern Woodlands woodpecker magnet designed by artist Liz Wahid. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner’s name, will appear when the next column is posted and in our newsletter (sign up here!).

Mystic Relic

This is a piece of antique maple sugarmaking equipment (coffee cup is for scale). What was it used for?

Mystic Relic Image

Answer

Filtering syrup.

This syrup filter was an invention of Colonel Fairfax Ayers, of Fairport Farm in Shaftsbury, Vermont. To use this device, you’d clamp a filter paper on the end of one barbell, flip it over, then fill the whole thing with syrup (the shaft in the middle is hollow). When the paper on the bottom got plugged with sugar sand, you’d affix a paper to the top, spin the thing 180 degrees (the little rod through the middle is for wall-mounting and spinning), and then your syrup could finish filtering out through a fresh paper. I’m not sure if this was just a prototype, or if some of these devices were sold on the open market. If any of you old timers have experience with this sort of filter, I’d love to learn more.

This week’s contest winner was Lisa Willey Critchfield of South Casco, Maine

© by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.

Visit the What in the Woods is That? archive…