The sweet product of Acer saccharum is known to many. Less known is that in the 1800's, New Englanders promoted maple syrup as an alternative to refined sugar, which was a product and integral part of the slave trade.  According to Full Moon Feast by J. Prentice, a farmer's almanac exhorts "prepare for making maple sugar, which is more pleasant and patriotic than that ground by the hand of slavery, and boiled down by the heat of misery".

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You too can be this chill....with Holy Basil!