((PKG)) HARVESTING BIRCH SAP
((TRT: 12:55))
((Topic Banner: Harvesting Birch Sap))
((Producer/Camera/Editor: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Map: Homer, Alaska))
((Main characters: 1 male; 1 female))
((Sub characters: 2 male; 3 female))
((BLURB: With friends and family, two Alaskans produce syrup from birch trees))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Mike Meredith
Father of Anna Meredith))
Pails are getting sticky. 1% sugar adds up. It can make everything sticky.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Good morning. Morning Dale.
((Katie Marden
Volunteer))
We're ready to rock and roll. Hi.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Everything Jake and I have done has been pretty unplanned and organically unfolds. We kind of spend the majority of our time doing things that we really enjoy and that we feel are good for us and healthy for us. And so, once we started making birch syrup together, it's a short time of the year or too, so that really helps. It's not a huge commitment now that ten years later, it's most of the year because of marketing and everything.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner of Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
So Quetzal, do you want to start in the zone where you did yesterday?
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
Yeah.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
I also work in education, and to leave the home like first thing in the morning, and to go away for 8 to 10 hours a day and not see your family, and your family doesn't know what you're doing at work all day, that was a really, that was a pretty foreign existence for me. And so, I struggled with that, just that way of life. So, I always had to find my balance. With this operation, I really love that it's Jake and I and it's our friends and family. We get to do it all together and actually all be a part of the process. Volunteers love to come help and every time they do, we trade them a bottle of syrup. So…
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
Am I a volunteer?
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Yeah.
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
I love this. And it's really, really beautiful, but I don't like waking up really early.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
It makes it a little easier though, right?
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
Yeah.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Be somewhere so nice?
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
Yeah. Some very, very full ones.
((NATS))
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
You will see this too. There are so many filter systems, it's okay. They're crew.
((NATS))
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
I think it makes me stronger carrying all these buckets with sap and more sap.
((NATS))
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
A lot, a lot of sap. How much, I wonder how much we're going to get today. Yesterday how much…
((Katie Marden
Volunteer))
I know yesterday they got, I think they got over a thousand [gallons/3,780 liters]. They got a few gallons over their record.
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
That's good.
((Brad Marden
Volunteer))
Been coming out for a few seasons. Yeah, it's a nice way to start a day. And my kids love the syrup. And look, Maple likes it.
((Katie Marden
Volunteer))
It's just fun to get outside and help friends at the same time. And it's so fun with the kids because we can be helping and hauling and they can kind of do their own thing, which is fun. It's a fun multi-age activity.
((Jake Beaudoin
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Timing is pretty much everything with birch. Waiting as long as you can, because the later you go, the more sap you'll get. But if you wait too long, you'll miss all that first, the first sugars that they put up the tree is like the primo, you know. It's got a little bit of sucrose in there and it's just really like, it makes not necessarily the best syrup, but it's like, you know, what I shoot for is like light and like, butterscotch. Just really nice, like the good stuff. But the late stuff is good too. I mean, it's all good. It's just different. Some of these trees, I mean, they fill these bags up every day just overfull.
Kenai Birch, they're kind of their own, own little hybrid species. It's pretty neat that we get to just exclusively tap these. They’re unique to the area.
((NATS))
((Jake Beaudoin
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Just a quick little poke and then you can see the pressure. That’s it. They got positive pressure, making a osmotic pump with their roots, you know, pulling all that groundwater. Flushing the minerals or sugars out of their roots that they stored last year and pumping it up to make new buds for the summer. So, a tree like this will probably put out about a half-gallon [1.9 liters] to three quarters of a half-gallon [1.9 liters] to three-quarters of a gallon [3.8 liters] per day, you know, for about three weeks. So, you get about a pint [.5 liters] of syrup, like out of a good tree, you know, so, for the whole season.
((NATS))
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Sap’s getting a little darker, later in the season.
((Katie Marden
Volunteer))
I'll go high. Is there any other empty buckets? Trogon, can I take your bucket?
((Trogon Hauser
Volunteer))
Wait, what?
((Katie Marden
Volunteer))
Can I have your bucket?
((Trogon Hauser
Volunteer))
Totally.
((Katie Marden
Volunteer))
Totally, thanks buddy.
((NATS))
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
We’re already getting backed up. There's so many muscles up top. The hoppers start. There's only a two-inch main line, and then it goes through a three-quarter-inch main line. And so, there's only so much pressure it can handle from all the muscles.
Guys look up.
((Penelope Haas
Volunteer))
I've been out here every day for like seven years. It's a hard thing to pin down. It's like what do you love about the ocean or what do you love about the mountains or…? It feels very alive in here, but still quiet. And I'm one of those people that likes the labor side of things. Like for me that's also peaceful. It's the best way to start the day from my point of view.
((Volunteer))
It's kind of a haul.
((Scott Hauser
Volunteer))
Everyone's had maple syrup, but a lot of people haven't had birch syrup. What is it? How is it different?
((Quetzal Hauser:
Volunteer))
It's well, it's not as sweet.
((Brad Marden
Volunteer))
So, if maple syrup is like a PBR [Pabst Blue Ribbon], it's like a craft beer. Birch syrup’s like more of a acquired taste sort of thing, but really good once you get, I don’t know, it’s different.
((NATS))
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
It tastes like sugary water. Like you dumped a bag of sugar in some water.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
All of us want the sweet stuff. It’s really good for us. It's like a spring tonic, which is pretty common in Scandinavian culture. And I think we're a little slower in North American culture to grab on to that or at least Alaskan culture. But a lot of people are doing it now, and they have been too like, usually old timers and homesteaders are like, “Oh yeah, I've been drinking sap for a lot of years.”
((NATS))
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
So you can hear it. You hear it flowing? We're going to overflow again. Ready? Here, I got to run up there and tell them to stop.
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
Uh oh, not again.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Guys, we got to stop pouring. I got two barrels overflowing. Let's give it like 10 minutes to clear out.
((Mike Meredith
Father of Anna Meredith))
It’s just a lot of sap going in at one time.
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
We should just drink.
((Mike Meredith
Father of Anna Meredith))
You just got to be patient for a minute, and it'll go down.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
That’s exciting. We’ve got sap spewing out everywhere. We’ve got to wait for that one to clear and then the whole line to burp and then we'll start again. That’s a good problem to have. We have too much sap.
((Trogon Hauser
Volunteer))
Every single thing, it just gets bigger until it overflows. It's a good thing we have hands.
((Quetzal Hauser
Volunteer))
Next time, I think I'll bring a straw.
((Trogon Hauser
Volunteer))
Same.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Alright, it’s burping. I think we're good.
((SOT))
Wow.
((Jake Beaudoin
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Today’s a great day. Yep, just the quintessential sap day.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
I want to be able to do things together and share it, because otherwise you, you know, I don't like just working for a paycheck. That doesn't really do it for a lot of people I bet.
((Brad Marden
Volunteer))
We did it!
((Katie Marden
Volunteer))
All the sacs are empty because we emptied them all.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Done for the day. Yep. Now we go start the next 8 to 10 hours routine of what we did yesterday.
((NATS))
((Mike Meredith
Father of Anna Meredith))
Yeah, a good day. No accidents. No, no trips. Good quality sap. Now, let Jake boil it down.
((Scott Hauser
Volunteer))
This is how we do it.
((Quetzel Hauser:
Volunteer))
Good girl. Bye.
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
So, we're going to take this load of grove one up to the sugar shop. And then the reverse osmosis system can start.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Wait till it's all steaming up in the evapotorium. It's pretty, pretty amazing smell. We wait all year just for that awesome environment, sweet-smelling sap boiling.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Jake Beaudoin
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Sap, water tank, which is basically the water that we extract from the sap. You know, you pull a bunch of water out with the reverse osmosis. So, it reduces the fuel costs, you know. Burn, we burn wood so, if you can, as much water as you can get rid of makes a big difference. It's a big science project. It's pretty fun. Chemistry, you know. There's some pretty cool chemistry involved and just, I don't know, it's interesting.
I try to get it up to 67 brix [measure of the dissolved solids in a liquid] before it goes in the bucket or bottle. I mean, I don't want to go to work for somebody every day. I’d much rather do this for myself and then scrape by and be able to work from home, you know, and in the woods too.
((NATS))
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
It gets pretty stressful, yeah. I mean, the burn point is a very real thing. A burned pan could be end of a season, but we've never had that before. Jake's pretty precise and on it, so. He hasn't whistled much this season. So, that's good. Whistling is an indicator, something's not right. It's like a sweet little, sweet little tune too.
((Mike Meredith
Father of Anna Meredith))
Like I said before, that's the finished product which is not done until you’re paid for it.
((Jake Beaudoin
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
He runs the financial department.
((Mike Meredith
Father of Anna Meredith))
Different kinds of minerals are coming out of the ground at this time of, this time of the run. See the difference in early and later run? Some people like the lighter, some people like the medium, mid-run.
((Jake Beaudoin
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Some people don't like it at all. But…
((Anna Meredith
Co-owner, Bridge Creek Birch Syrup))
Jake and I both don't want things to get too big. It doesn't have to be all on a website. It doesn't have to be on social media. It doesn't have to be like crushing it and growing and everything that society says it needs to be. We just go at our own pace and we love where it's at.
((NATS/MUSIC))