Hey there pioneer pundits! It’s me, Stephen McLachlin back with another post for Agriculture Week, but this time things are going to be a bit different. Instead of continuing our series on farming in the Talbot Settlement over the years, I wanted to dedicate a post to our very own honey house here at the Backus-Page house museum.
So far, our description of a Talbot settler’s diet must sound quite bland, but even in the 19th century a settler could still indulge their sweet tooth. There were two main kinds of sweeteners at the time, maple syrup and honey. Maple trees were common enough that settlers had access to maple syrup, though their process of acquiring it was much less refined than modern techniques.
To collect the sap, settlers would use an axe to cut into the tree and insert a basic spout which would drain sap into a pot or trough. The sap would then be boiled over a fire and either milk or the white of an egg would be added to thicken it into maple syrup.
Honey was also available for those who were willing to work hard enough to get it. By melting honey and wax on a hot stone, settlers could attract honeybees, which they would then follow back to their hives. After finding these hives, settlers could either smoke the bees out and take the honey, or if they were up for the undertaking, they could cut down the tree and hollow a portion of the trunk to make into a hive.
Our very own Honey House, which would have been built between 1828 and 1831, used a similar method to attract bees, but its personal history makes it so much more to us than just a place to lure bees.
The Honey House was originally built around 1830 on the William Pearce Farm in Wallacetown by a travelling carpenter, who crafted tiny slits in the “windows” of the house so that bees could get in.
After the death of Steward Pearce, William Pearce’s grandson, the Honey House was willed to the Elgin County Pioneer Museum, where it stayed for ten years (1968-78).
In 1978, vandals burned the Honey House to the ground, but students at the Parkside Collegiate Institute built an exact replica which was gifted to the Backus-Page House Museum in December 2006.
And that’s how the Honey House made its way to us, pretty cool stuff eh? There’s a book with more information in our gift shop, and if you’re interested in learning more, call us at 519-762-3072 or email us at info@backuspagehouse.ca.
References
Clutterbuck, Mary. The Honey House. Backus-Page House Museum, 2007.
Guillet, Edwin C. The Pioneer Farmer and Backwoodsman: Volume Two. University of Toronto Press, 1963.
Jones, Robert Leslie. History of agriculture in Ontario 1613-1880. University of Toronto Press, 1946.
Winson, Anthony. The industrial diet: The degradation of food and the struggle for healthy eating. NYU Press, 2014.
