Birch Sap Sugar?

[Woodlark]

Like many of you, I have relished the taste of fresh Birch Sap in the early spring (I've also enjoyed a bottle or 2 of Birch Sap wine!) but I never heard of Birch Sap Sugar. Whilst reading "The Winter of the Fisher" by Cameron Langford, there is a description of an old Ojibway Indian making some, I quote "Often he would stop and listen to the gentle dropping of the sap. One drop a minute or maybe two, twelve thousand drops a gallon, five gallons to be boiled down to a pint of syrup or a ridiculously tiny two ounces of granular, yellow sugar."

Sounds like it would be easier to raid a bee hive, but has anyone heard of such a practise?

 

[John Fenna]

Tried it - not worth the effort involved!
From a 5l jug of sap I got little more than a sticky spoonful of sugar which tasted of very little realy.
You are better off making the wine!

 

[Toddy]

What John said

Thing to remember though is that our tastebuds are ruined for sweetnesses these days. We buy sugar by the kilo, sweeties, especially just after Christmas, are so commonplace that we don't even wonder where the sugar comes from.

If you have none, and you don't have the wherewithall to dry fruit, that first sweetness of the saps must have been a real delight in the past, second only to the occasional find of honey before hives made it more common.

Try doing without *any* sugary sweetness for a week then try a few raisins, it's an amazing difference

cheers,
Toddy

 

[firecrest]

well you see the hunter gatherers get stung all over for one taste of honey! Us westerners can't even be bothered carrying it home from the supermarket if its to heavy.

 

[xavierdoc]

I made birch sap syrup last year: it took A LOT of sap. To say thank you, I invited the friend whose trees I tapped over for dinner with his family. We had the syrup on ice cream- it was fantastic and they all loved it.

I have some pics somewhere. Not sure I'll do it again.