Apple Fritter inspired by a recipe from Martha Washington’s Family Manuscript tossed with Maple Sugar made from my brother at The Blind Pig Kitchen
I recently did a private tea service where I wanted to add a little extra historical treat among my other offerings. I found this incredibly interesting:
In Dave Dewitt’s book- Founding Foodies, he tells the story of Dr. Benjamin Rush, a proponent of slavery abolition and temperance. He and some Quakers founded the Society for Promoting the Manufacture of Sugar from the Sugar Maple Tree. He approached Thomas Jefferson and the idea of America supplying half the world with sugar from maples and eventually outperforming the sugar cane industry that relied on slavery was such a great idea, that Thomas Jefferson went all in. He had a scheme that companies would plant vast swathes of maples, even planting some at Monticello, but Dewitt writes, “the plan failed cause of lack of support-people simply preferred sugar from sugarcane and couldn’t care less about its origins”
The maple sugar was harvested and boiled down by my brother at The Blind Pig Kitchen. And of course I used cider from Ploughman Cider instead of ale.
