You are looking at a picture of the finest quality, natural syrup evaporated from sap drawn from a living Birch tree. The idea to do this came after living amongst some very large, beautiful Birch in British Columbia's Cariboo.

The sap starts to run about the beginning of March. Mature trees are drilled and tapped, a spile is inserted from which a bucket hangs. The air is crisp and the first few buckets show a glaze of ice in the early morning.The average tree produces three to five gallons of sap per day. Tapping the tree does not hurt it and a cork is inserted at the end of the season to seal the hole.

The sap runs for three to four weeks, it takes eighty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The sap is boiled in a wood-fired, stainless steel evaporator. Soft plumes of steam rise and fill the sugar shack with a sweet smell that is indescribable, we've often wished we could bottle that smell!

Our efforts are rewarded as the boiling sap turns golden color before our eyes. The finished product is a very delicate and fine caramel-flavored nectar that is comprised of two sugars: Fructose and Glucose. The flavor can best be appreciated by pouring the syrup on pancakes or vanilla ice cream, try some on steamed carrots or glaze a ham.