Winter sweet…
I wanted to wrap up this blog project with a bit of sweetness, so I decided to dedicate this last daily post to the sweetest product of winter: syrup. It’s a little early yet for the syrup harvest, but it’s around the corner. When the daylight gets long and warm enough from around mid-February to March nutritious sap reserves that were stored away from the freeze in the underground roots of trees begin to migrate back up revitalizing the trees for spring and summer growth. Much like bears, plants and trees experience an emergence from winter into spring. In the case of trees, the sap is effectively pumped up from the tree roots into the trunk and branches through alternating freeze-thaw cycles. The sap moves through a tissue layer called the xylem, or sapwood, located just under the cambium. This is the living tissue of trees found closer to the surface that acts as the conveyor. The cambium lies underneath the bark and the sapwood comes next, which makes the sap easy to reach with naught but a drill. Syrup is produced by tapping the sap that’s rising through trees toward the end of winter and reducing it to a concentrated, sweet substance through evaporation.
The great Canadian maple syrup heist…
Maple syrup is easily the most known tree syrup product, and here in Canada it’s big business. Did you know that Canada has a maple syrup reserve? It’s a stockpile of barrels of syrup amounting to millions of pounds in weight. Maple syrup is a precious and highly desired commodity, and you know that’s true when it becomes the subject of high-profile crime. In 2011 around 3,000 barrels of maple syrup were stolen from a Quebec warehouse that was owned by the organization which sets the price of Quebec maple syrup – kind of like an oil cartel. Those 3,000 barrels were worth $18.7 million. The thieves syphoned the syrup from barrels in the warehouse, which was later discovered during routine inventory checks. Believe it or not, the syrup was sold on the black market. Yep, syrup, that sweet stuff you put on pancakes, is a black market good. Only about 600 barrels were recovered, and over 20 people were sentenced and fined in this heist. So, what’s the point of all this? There’s something special about syrup, special enough to preserve it, protect it, and to steal it apparently.
Birch sap…
I started really thinking about syrup and its wintery connection after I encountered a YouTube video from one of my favorite creators, Jona Jinton, about birch sap. In the video, Jona talks about drinking birch sap to re-energize and revitalize after winter. She doesn’t convert her collected sap into syrup, instead she drinks it raw. However, for most of us, we’re not likely to find fresh birch or maple sap to drink, instead we’re relegated to the evaporated sticky sweet version that we call syrup.
Nutritious sweetener…
As with all food that arrives in the market place a little closer to its natural origins, syrup contains nutrients that you wouldn’t find in other sweeteners. Maple syrup has antioxidants from phenolics (total phenolic content around 440 µg/mL), minerals like manganese (up to 100% daily value in 1/4 cup), zinc, copper, riboflavin, and calcium. Birch syrup is rich in vitamins (B vitamins, C), minerals (manganese, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, copper, iron, phosphorus), antioxidants, and 17 amino acids. Birch syrup is also lower in calories than maple (due to xylitol and fructose), with potential benefits for hydration, detoxification, and oral health from xylitol. Yellow birch has higher mineral content and antioxidant value than sugar maple.
Note that copper is contained in both maple and birch syrups. Copper is an essential mineral for hair color. If your hair is dull, graying early, or already gray adding copper into your diet can brighten and enrich the tone of your hair. It has been shown to recolor early graying hair, and while it may not recolor permanently gray hair it can darken the grays into a deeper hue. Modern diets have been stripped of nutrients. We supplement to offset the detriments of eating overly processed, deficient foods. Instead of managing expensive multitudes of supplements, why not add some delicious real food back into your meals? Syrup is more than flavor, it’s sustenance. It is calorically dense, so obviously don’t overdo it, but consider a touch of syrupy sweetness here and there during your remaining winter and early spring.
Appeal to a syrupy spring…
Maple flavor is so strongly associated with fall that I’m not sure I can convince you to bring it into spring. If you must, reserve it for that time of year when the air becomes crisp and cool and the leaves turn gorgeously yellow, red, and orange. Instead, consider ordering some birch syrup to season and sweeten your spring palate and culinary experiments. It’s available online, but finding it in the store might be a little tricky. Birch syrup has a tangy, caramel-like flavor, which is great in sauces, marinades, vinaigrettes, ice cream, or mocktails and cocktails. Or, if you can make the mental switch from fall to spring for maple, start using maple syrup for anything you sweeten, like coffee, tea, oatmeal, desserts, dressings, marinades, and so on.
Adventures in syrup…
For more on syrup check out these suggestions:
- Watch The Sticky, Amazon Prime’s series on The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist
- Order real Canadian maple syrup: https://jakemansmaplesyrup.com/collections/maple-syrup
- Order real Canadian birch syrup: https://canadianbirchcompany.com/collections/pure-birch-syrup
- Watch how maple syrup is produced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjI9dEKZjs
- How to tap a tree and produce syrup DIY style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZBhORwKsoA
Leave a Reply