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Spruce’s Gum

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Joined
Jul 26, 2014
Messages
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Location
Southern Illinois
Well now howdy, yall? Recently I tried a period-correct chewing gum. Spruce gum:

90616891-4216-4867-9245-8C4EA840F4E7.jpeg


Natives had been collecting it for centuries and when the pioneers came through the Northwest regions they encountered it and adopted it. By the early 1800s (late flintlock to early percussion period) there started to become an industry around spruce gum and it retained high popularity up until the early 20th Century when chicle and later synthetic gum took over:

2E607488-1EB4-41A1-B42F-6A948C39B046.jpeg


I bought some off Etsy from a maker in Maine and it’s really interesting. Crumbly at first, and a little bitter, but has an incredible fresh piney flavor that lasts and lasts non stop. It’s like walking through an X-mas tree forest. It’s funny because you can take it out of your mouth and in just a minute it’ll re-harden. It doesn’t stick to teeth at all like how you might think and is relatively filling friendly.

I really enjoy it and would make a great historically accurate period substitute for chewing gum. I’m going to tuck some in my hunting pouch for sure. Try it!

-Smokey
 
I have chewed it when I find it and pine needles every time I'm in the forest. I have since I was a boy. My wife and nephews think I'm crazy but I have one of them coming around I think. Try pine needle tea next time your in the woods.
 
Never done the spruce gum but if I come across a stand of black birch will take a few slivers of the bark to make a tea with also the cadmium layer is good just to kind of chew on. Always carry a few dried sassafras roots also for a tea. Also wild tea berry is good to chew.
 
My great aunt took me out in the woods to gather some a few times when I was very young but unfortunately there are no spruce trees anywhere near where I live now. I did find some for sale in Maine on one of my visits back in the late '70s. The attached image is the exact product I found. The gum was clean and had been rolled in corn starch. "Kennebec Spruce Gum"---"Made of gum base, edible softening agents. Rolled in cornstarch."---"PUT UP BY C.A.McMahan Co., FIVE ISLANDS, MAINE"---"FROM THE...FORESTS OF MAINE"- NMAAHC-2017_111_14_001.jpg
 
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