Spruce Tip Syrup Recipe - How to Make Fir or Spruce Syrup | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

What is the best spruce for spruce tips? ›

While all spruce tips are edible, I find blue spruce to be the most intense flavor. Spruce tips can be enjoyed raw, cooked into any dish and used as you might rosemary because their flavor profile is similar. I think that this flavor would pair well with white gamey meat and chicken.

Think of them as an herb you would use raw. When I cook with spruce tips, I usually add them raw to salads or sprinkle over vegetable dishes. If I use spruce tips in desserts, they will typically be pureed or in an infusion, and always strained if possible since leftover particles can get bitter.

Spruce tips have a distinct taste — citrus with a hint of resin. You can snack on them fresh or or add them to salads. Dried spruce tips can be ground in a coffee grinder and make a great nutmeg like spice – check out the recipe for Moose Steak with Yukon Rub and for Northern Pumpkin Pie! They can also be used in teas.

The syrup smells like a pine forest, tastes a little citrusy — moreso if you add lemon juice — and adds a wonderful woodsy note to glazed pheasant, grouse or chicken. Spruce tip syrup is even better mixed with ice cold water, carbonated or no, and a hint of lime or lemon juice.

Spruce and fir trees have their needles attached individually to the branches. To tell spruce and fir trees apart, it helps to know that spruce needles are sharply pointed, square and easy to roll between your fingers. Fir needles, on the other hand, are softer, flat and cannot be rolled between your fingers.

The young shoots, which stand out from the darker mature needles from last year break off easily from the branch for effortless harvest. Not all spruce tips taste the same. The Forager Chef recommends White Spruce, Blue Spruce, and Norway Spruce.

In our study, split wood harvested in the spring took anywhere from six weeks to three months to dry during the summer, depending on the storage method. Split birch and split spruce, for example, dried in one and a half months when stored in a simulated wood shed or left uncovered.

To use the spruce tip syrup, take a teaspoon a day or add it to hot tea, smoothies or juices. My favourite way to use spruce tip syrup is to add a teaspoon to a green smoothie in the morning. It gives it a delicious fragrant sweetness and packs it full of those vital vitamins that we need so much in the winter.

Two of the best ways to freeze spruce tips is to bag them up in plastic freezer baggies or to vacuum seal them and then freeze. Spruce tips can last up to one year. Today, I'm making spruce tip/carrot/zucchini/ bread with spruce tip cream cheese frosting. All you need is your favroite zucchini carrot bread recipe.

Spruce tips are the new growth of the trees each year and are most notably antiseptic, antimicrobial and an incredible source of vitamin C. After a long winter, they offer an immune boost and a fresh, lemony flavor that wakes you up from your hibernation slumber.

What does boiling spruce do? ›

Boughs collected from the white spruce can be boiled to purify our indoor air and clean the surfaces in our homes. Collect white spruce branches following traditional protocols.

The key is to harvest them when they first begin to emerge from their brown, papery husks. At this stage, spruce tips are tender and have a fresh flavor with hints of citrus. To harvest, pull the spruce tips gently off the tree. Make sure you don't over-harvest one area, or take too many from a single tree.

A lot can be done with spruce tips, but my favorite way to eat them, like many foods, is fresh and in season. I love their sprucy flavor. In order to enjoy the tips in the winter they need to be frozen or dried, though the flavor can change a little bit.

Water Your Finished Spruce Tip Pot

Place your pot where you want it and water to moisten the soil until it freezes. Fresh evergreens will continue to take up water like a fresh Christmas tree. Watering your pot will keep it fresh all season.

The most commonly used tonewood in the world, Sitka Spruce is the archetypal spruce, found on everything from the most basic beginner's guitars to boutique, custom and bespoke creations from the greatest luthiers in the world. The reason is simple: it's a fantastic all-rounder.

Sitka spruce: This is the most common spruce used in guitar soundboard construction. It is essentially the baseline of spruce tonewood, with much of the information mentioned above applying to it. Sitka spruce top guitars are great for aggressive and gentle playing styles alike.

Among the spruce species, Colorado Blue spruce and white spruce are susceptible, while Norway spruce is relatively resistant to the diseases. Resistant species: Planting resistant species is a very effective and economic way to prevent needle cast diseases in the areas where these diseases are problematic.

Norway spruce will happily grow in acidic soils that many other species won't tolerate, but it does not tolerate drought well, preferring moist but well-drained soils.