{"id":4878,"date":"2010-08-03T19:03:34","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T00:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=4878"},"modified":"2022-05-09T06:37:23","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T11:37:23","slug":"birch-syrup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/birch-syrup\/","title":{"rendered":"Birch Syrup Geography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wandered into a shop in Talkeetna<\/a>, a town of a few hundred souls in the interior of south central Alaskan (map<\/a>). There I discovered an assortment of small plastic jugs with a strange and rare substance offered for sale: birch syrup. I’d never heard of this particular agricultural product before. Sure, I’ve consumed more than my share of maple<\/em> syrup over the years. However, I’d lived my entire life without running across birch syrup. Is it genuine? Does it actually come from a birch tree? And why does it command such an eye-popping price?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Talkeetna,<\/a>
Talkeetna, Alaska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The phenomenon is real. Birch, like Maple, produces a sugary sap. Therefore producers can reduce it into a syrup through the removal of nearly all of its water content. They usually use a combination of reverse osmosis and evaporation through boiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Range<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Talkeetna sits at the northern edge of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. Apparently this is the epicenter of the commercial production of birch syrup. However, the entire worldwide<\/em> yield equals maybe only 1,000 – 1,500 gallons (~5,000 liters) per year! The vast majority of this comes from the hands of hardworking farmers and homesteaders in the Mat-Su.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Betula<\/a>
Potential Birch Syrup Range<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Alaska Birch, a variety of Paper Birch, is the source for most of the sap for commercially-produced syrup. It ranges widely from the Boreal forests of central Alaska into Canada’s Yukon, Northwest Territories, and down into the Prairie Provinces. Theoretically, sap harvesting could take place in all of these places. Even so it hasn’t caught-on in any meaningful way except in Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scarcity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Maple
This is a maple tree but harvesters tap birch trees similarly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are valid reasons for the scarcity of birch syrup. They all combine to support a common theme: it’s darn difficult to produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n