It is said that a French Doctor or Aboriginals might have discovered this, first. The answer is neither. It was discovered by red squirrels! What is it?

Something they all ate, perhaps. Let's try willow bark, a source of the original active ingredient of aspirin. Can't imagine a squirrel with a headache but there you go !

Nice try Fred, but looking for something else.It is eatable though.

quote:

Originally posted by FredPuli:
Something they all ate, perhaps. Let's try willow bark, a source of the original active ingredient of aspirin. Can't imagine a squirrel with a headache but there you go !

They will sip from fermented apples lying on the ground. Hangover cure?

No sorry Bab.Maybe is it that I mentioned a "French Doctor" in my question, but I am not looking for anything related with medication or medecine.But you both,are close.

May we get another hint or maybe the answer, Mozart? I'm curious to know.

Me too! I can't imagine what those pesky squirrels discovered....unless that hemlock trees are edible.

Usually discoveries are given to human being and not animals.But the Canadian Goverment (Minister of Agriculture) has decided otherwise. The answer is "Maple Syrup"
Source.Look at the bottom of the page.

"The answer is Maple Syrup"

Mozart, what c**p are you trying to feed these poor defenseless Yankees now?

First of all, maple syrup is not 'discovered' in the woods, it's manufactured. Squirrels can't light a fire, so couldn't boil down the sap.

Second of all, even if they meant 'invented the process of manufacturing maple syrup from maple sap', it was no darned French doctor. The Hurons taught the settlers, as they did many more things and were never credited for it.

Naughty boy! Now stand in the corner!

Well Bab,( did you read my source) I'am counting on you to call the Canadian Government and tell them that their source is wrong. I am just the messenger here.
And I don't like to stand in the corner, send me in my bed instead.

Well, all right, but no internet when you're in 'time out'. I know that's the worst punishment of all.

You tell him Babs!
Maple syrup my Aunt Fanny.....

How did the Hurons know that boiling the sap from that particular tree would produce something good to eat? I buy the squirrel story. The Hurons could have seen the squirrels licking sap from a broken branch, and pass that along to the settlers.

Did Hurons have fire? Yes.

Did Hurons have brains? Yes.

Do people experiment with just about everything in their environment? Yes.

Did Red Squirrels preceed humans in every part of the world, giving the idea for planting seeds, smelting metal, skinning animals, fishing? Well, no, maybe not.

So maybe the native people are the more likely to have come up with the idea than some priest watching a squirrel.

We do know from the records that the Hurons recommended that the people drink tree sap and eat the scrapings of the inner bark of trees to overcome their scurvy in the winter, when there was no fresh food to eat. In fact, without native help, it's rather unlikely that in those days the Europeans could have successfully settled that climate. They were used to agriculture, and could neither grow crops nor live off the land in the first years. They got their food by trading with the natives.

I still say the Minister of Agriculture is an ass. (In the very best sense of that word.)

I agree that Europeans couldn't have made it without native help, and not just in that area. But I also think that the squirrel story is just as reasonable, if not more reasonable, than human trial-and-error.

If one priest watched one day a squirrel doing the licking on Maple syrup ,he knew that they've been doing it for hundreds or, thousands of years. That's the (scientific) logic behind it (observation), and chances are that Hurons or other first Nations people as well as the first French settlements observed that as well. You don't need fire to find Maple syrup as explained in the source, and obviously no brain , just a good sense of taste.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mozart,