spruce tip syrup

 It is once again time for the spruce trees in the north to stick out their yummy new growth, and a friend of mine asked me how I made the spruce tip syrup last year, since it came out well.  

I couldn't find a post on it here, so, having taken the time to clean up my notes, I will post them here, and hopefully I will have time this weekend to make some more, with fewer mistakes next time.

 

Spruce Tip syrup

 

My first try: 

 

Friday 2019-05-31

• Put 700 ml freshly picked spruce tips to soak in 1 l water overnight and somewhat longer. (I cannot recommend the "somewhat longer" part": They were still green in the morning, but we had a social engagement that day, and when we returned in the early evening the layer on top had started going brown.  I used them, anyway)

Saturday 2019-06-01

• Heated the 700 ml spruce tips in it 1 l of soaking water. Then lost track of time, and when I returned to the kitchen 2.5 hrs later there was only one cup of liquid remaining, oops. 
• Strained it and set it the liquid (in one container), and the spruce tip pulp (in another) into the fridge till the next day, when I had time to deal with it.

Sunday 2019-06-06

• Put the spruce tips into a pot with just enough water to cover and heated it for about 12 minutes, and then strained off the 3/4 cup of liquid and added it to the previous day's liquid.
• A third time, put just enough water to cover the spruce tips and heated it again, and strained off the liquid
• Cooked the combined liquid (just over 0.5 L total) from all three times of heating them with 1 dl sugar, and let it boil till it had reduced enough to fit into one 250 ml glass jar.

Despite the various issues in making it, it came out well, and I wound up using it to make spruce tip ice cream (yum!), almond-cream-spruce tip candy (yum!), and spruce tip bread rolls (yum!) before I ran out.  Hopefully I pick a few more this year, so that it lasts longer.