The Nordic gold. Unfortently the forest owners in the north does not put any value to the birch trees other than for heating the stove.
But thats good for me. I have the forest owners permit to use his trees during the sap season. And i use the trees for 3 seasons before i let them rest. The flow in the trees can be more than 20 litres / day when it is as best, the average is 7-12 litres a day.
The sap contains less than 1% of sugar so it has to be reduced a long time on low heat. It takes 80-100 hours to make 0,7 litre from onehundred litre of sap. I do not go over 90 degrees, Its mostly fructose in the sap and that start to burn at 94 degrees.
Many kilometers of walk for the collecting of sap. It has to be collected every day, pipes and bottles need to be cleaned so the wild fermentation dont start eating the sugar away.
We are two persons working in shift of 14 hours a day for about one month. And after that its time for the last reduction of the syrup. Wood for next year has to be done and cleaning all the boilers, bottles and equipment. That will take one month more, but it is easy work compare to the main season.
Sap starts to flow in April in Jämtland and it last for 4 weeks. During that time we also have to process 500 litre of sap daily in the first reduction.
To keep the right temperature in wood fired boilers can be tricky. The smoky taste it gives to the syrup in the end is worth all work.
This was my first shelter for the syrup production.
After first reduction from 100 litre to 10 litre it has already got some taste and colour. In this stage its possible to take away a small amount to make Birch beer or Vinegar. But most of it goes to the second reduction to be syrup in the end.
The first product I did was a mix of sap, berries from the forest and a neighbours honey. Problem here is to make it stay good without any preservatives, or heating. When birch sap is heated it will lose its anti allergic effect. It sold out very fast on market days and since then i have never done it again.
After some years I sold my farm and moved to another project in Denmark. But my syrup production still remains in Jämtland. I have moved my equipment to Bengt´s place. He is a forest owner just a few hundred meters from my old farm. Bengt let us use his trees, forest for wood making, and everything else we need for two months of hard work. For that we try to help him on his estate as often as possible.
First year at Bengt´s place in Järpbyn I had the production in his old wood shed.
It is all outdoor work, every day in all weather. We can not loose one day during the short season.
Last year we built the new shelter for the production and Niklas build a new boiler to reduce the wood consumption. It also saved us a lot of time and it was for the first time possible to reduce working hours for two persons from 28 to 20 hours a day. Its possible because we fill every boiler to the top with sap and starts it in the evening and in the morning when first person comes down, it is just to fill wood on the excisting glow. And we already lost 15- 20 liter without cooking it.
And this is the end, it feels very good when all the work with cleaning and making wood for next season is over and I can go home again with new bottles filled up.
