'Eekschillers' on the Konijnenberg

Old maps show that most of the Rabbit Mountain was covered with fields. Only the steeper edges were overgrown with heather or wooded. In the ancien régime this must have been oak. It was not until the 19th century that the pine appeared. Here we still see beautiful specimens of pedunculate oak. Rillaar was known in the Middle Ages for its 'eek-' or 'oak peelers'.

They stripped trees, mostly oak, of their bark (eek). The felling was done from spring to June by day laborers and small farmers. The men chopped off the wood lengthwise, while children knocked on the bark with hammers to loosen it. Then the green bark on an anvil with the back of an axe was knocked loose and the bark was peeled off with a knife. The women tied the loose pieces together. These were then dried and transported across the Demer to the watermills where the bark for the tanners was ground. The turpentine (tannic acid) present in the bark was necessary for the tanning process.

Jan Rymenams