Syrup question

Dani

Dani

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So, my uncle and aunt are in Alaska and they have been doing some touristy things....photographing the northern lights, ice fishing, visiting the Large Animal Research center in Fairbanks, etc etc etc

They found something that I think Dave and other wood turners might be interested in and that is family tree "bowls"

(1) Family Tree Sets ? Great Alaskan Bowl Company (woodbowl.com)

They also picked up something that I was very curious about. They got some birch syrup. Similar to maple syrup but from birch trees (as if that wasn't obvious). Has anyone here ever tried birch syrup? How does it compare to maple syrup...I read through the website I am just curious about what people actually think? My uncle told me he would give me a review of the syrup when he gets back home from work but that will be about a month from now and I am quite curious. They picked up a jar of the Birch Breakfast syrup..

Alaska Birch Syrup Products | Alaska Wild Harvest Birch Syrup
 
I had a taste of Birch syrup as well as Birch wine when I was in Newfoundland the first time. Iighter in color and flavor than maple syrup but still tasty. While maple syrup is 40-50:1, it takes 100 gallons of birch sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup.
 
actually

many hardwood trees will give some varying quality of syrup - the sugar in the sap is the nourishment for the spring growth and leafing out


maple shines because you need a lot less sap and the flavor is better
 
Birch sap has a batch-to-batch variance in metallic finish to it, better used as a background flavoring on grilled salmon.
 
BTW

when i was a kid - we spent a fair about of time in the woods and would often make birch beer over a campfire

sort of like root beer, but we didn't have a way to carbonate it, so more like flat root beer
 
This is all very cool! One more reason to add Alaska to my bucket list of trips to take.
 
Huntindave McCann said:
Dani

Yes, the first step is to rough cut bowl blanks, using a specialty tool. After which each individual bowl is finish turned as usual. Not only does this produce a "matching" set it also reduces wasted wood.

Coring A Bowl ~ Woodturning - YouTube
Click to expand...

That is super cool Dave. Thanks for the link. I couldn't seem to find on the bowl website how it was done. My gramma will love the video I think. She has gotten into wood turning....
 
Interesting about the syrup flavors

I saw where birch water and birch beer had been made....never heard of birch wine. Very cool.
 
Birch beer was popular where I grew up in northeast PA.
This local soda company supplied it in cans, bottles and kegs. Not sure if they still do kegs!

https://www.a-treat.com/flavors/birch-beer#:~:text=Head%20deep%20into%20Pennsylvania%20Dutch,of%20A%2DTreat%20Birch%20Beer.
 
Carl said:
Birch beer was popular where I grew up in northeast PA.
This local soda company supplied it in cans, bottles and kegs. Not sure if they still do kegs!

https://www.a-treat.com/flavors/birch-beer#:~:text=Head%20deep%20into%20Pennsylvania%20Dutch,of%20A%2DTreat%20Birch%20Beer.
Click to expand...

Carl, part of my favorite meal..... Brass Rail Restaurant in Allentown, Cheese Steak, Perogies, Birch Beer, and Tapioca pudding with whipped cream. Need to go back just to eat.... No family there anymore.
 
I made birch syrip in college. Tasted awful. Like raisins and molasses. Great for cooking, sucked otherwise. I also ran a 700 tap maple operation at my former farm up in NE CT, so maybe I'm just biased.

You can also tap apple, beech, walnut, sycamore- I believe any diffuse porous species will work. I know folks in PA tap black walnut, and I've heard sycamore syrup tastes like butterscotch. Yum!

It's true about the ratios, some birch species are closer to 150:1.
 
And when you're done eating something with syrup on it, you can wash it down with some spruce beer. Had that in Canada a couple of times when I was young.

 
We made birch beer as kids in southwest PA but it was never as good as store bought. We added sugar one time while steeping the bark in a pot and as i recall it fermented. That too explains some things...
 
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