This year, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding — or at least of the document that shouted its principles to the world. The Declaration of Independence was signed with flourishes by 56 men gathered in Philadelphia in July of 1776.
In 1976, when Americans celebrated our bicentennial, the country was joyful. Today, as we approach the semiquincentennial, the joy is mitigated.
I know people on the left who wonder what we have to celebrate. I know people on the right who want to celebrate only parts of our history, trying to avoid criticizing our nation’s past.
I believe in moderation, so I argue that both are wrong. We have much to celebrate and much to criticize. We can and should celebrate and criticize without losing track of our historical trajectory … or our desire to continue to become “a more perfect union.”
Today I want to talk about one of our Founding Fathers, a man who loved this country but was not afraid to criticize it, Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) of Pennsylvania.
Rush could be called the Zelig of the American Revolution; he was everywhere. He helped Thomas Paine put together the pamphlet “Common Sense,” which argued that Americans should reject the monarchy and be self-governing.
Rush was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776. A physician, he became a surgeon in the Continental Army and participated in the crucial crossing of the Delaware River with General Washington in December of that year.
Rush strongly supported the idea of a federal government and helped ratify the U.S. Constitution in the 1780s.
In addition to working as a doctor, teaching, and serving his country, Rush was known as the foremost abolitionist among the Founding Fathers. He argued that African Americans were human beings whose enslavement brought shame to our nation.
“Remember that national crimes require national punishments,” he wrote, “and without declaring what punishment awaits this evil, you may venture to assure them that it cannot pass with impunity, unless God shall cease to be just or merciful.”
Like many of his fellow patriots— Thomas Jefferson comes to mind here — Rush embraced the idea of all men being created equal with a touch of hypocrisy. He “owned” a man named William Grubber for a number of years.
Rush did eventually free Grubber, however. And the physician proposed a concrete way of fighting against enslavement.
One of the pillars of that practice — indeed, of economic life in the new nation — was the famous Triangular Trade.
The first point of the triangle was Europe, which exported manufactured goods to Western Africa.
There those goods were exchanged for enslaved people, who were transported to the New World to work on plantations to produce the raw materials for the manufactured goods, materials like cotton, sugar and rum. (Rum was itself a sugar product.)
The raw materials were then sent to Europe, completing the triangle.
Rush argued that Americans could work “to lessen or destroy the consumption of West Indian sugar, and thus indirectly to destroy negro slavery.” His solution was to plant maple trees and use their sap to make maple syrup and maple sugar.
The practice was sustainable, local and ethical. Moreover, maple sugar was then less expensive than imported sugar.
Rush was not the only person to try to promote maple sugar as the solution to cane sugar. A “Farmers’ Almanac” urged Americans, “Make your own sugar, and send not to the Indies for it. Feast not on the toil, pain and misery of the wretched.”
Rush was the most prominent American to argue that maple might strike a blow to the Triangular Trade, however.
He founded an organization called the Society for Promoting the Manufacture of Sugar from the Sugar Maple Tree. He convinced his friend Thomas Jefferson to join. Jefferson briefly dreamed that the new country could become a major exporter of sugar if that sugar were maple.
Jefferson even decided to plant maple trees at his home, Monticello. Unfortunately, the warm temperatures in Virginia were unsuited to sugaring. All of the 60 trees our third president brought in died, as did those he planted in their place.
Happily, the climate here in New England is excellent for getting sap to run at the right rates to form the raw material for maple syrup and sugar, even if those sweeteners are no longer less expensive than cane sugar.
As we enter Maple Month, let’s raise a jug of syrup to Benjamin Rush … and prepare to cook with maple.
My recipe this week is a longtime Weisblat family favorite, adapted from King Arthur Baking. I don’t make granola very often, but when I do it’s a treat to have in the house and share with friends.
The recipe is flexible. If you want to avoid gluten, swap out the cereal nuggets for more nuts. If you only have slivered almonds as I did, use them instead of sliced ones. If you prefer walnuts to pecans or have them on hand, use them instead. And so forth.
Maple Pecan Granola
Ingredients:
3-1/2 cups uncooked old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup flaked coconut (ideally unsweetened, but use sweetened if that’s what you have)
1/2 cup nutlike cereal nuggets such as Grape-Nuts
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pecan halves
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds (I had only toasted seeds, which worked fine)
1/4 cup canola oil, plus oil for greasing the pan
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup raisins (plus as many extra as you like!)
1 cup dried cranberries (more of these are nice, too)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, the coconut, the cereal, the almonds, the pecans and the sunflower seeds. Make sure they are well jumbled up. In a separate, smaller bowl or measuring cup, carefully whisk together the oil, the salt, the syrup and the vanilla.
Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and mix the whole mess together thoroughly with a big spoon.
Generously oil a large, rimmed sheet pan with canola oil. (Pour a little oil in the pan, and smooth it around with a paper towel.) Place the granola on the pan, and bake it until it is golden brown, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, stirring well every 15 minutes to keep the mixture from sticking and burning.
Remove the pan from the oven, and cool the granola to room temperature. At that point, transfer the granola back into the large bowl, and stir in the dried fruits. Store the granola in an airtight container (or several).
Makes about 8 cups of granola — more or less, depending on how much stuff you add.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.