TEMPLE — Susie Dennison opened a spigot on a canner Monday and filled a bottle with dark-colored, homemade birch syrup. Her husband, Michael Romanyshyn, took the full bottle and placed it on a dish towel on the counter of their commercial bakery. He attached a Temple Tappers label on it and the process continued.
The temperature shown on the canner was just right.
They call the late-season syrup “black gold” because of its darker color. They already canned the earlier season syrups they refer to as “ruby” for the first run and, later, “dark ruby.”
The Dennison/Romanyshyn family will be the first commercial birch syrup producers in Maine when they begin selling their family’s award-winning syrup at the Common Ground Fair on Friday in Unity, Romanyshyn said. They sold some of it at the Fiddlehead Festival in Farmington this past spring.
The couple became interested in tapping birch trees after a friend, Kristen Plummer, sent them an article on a University of New Hampshire project researching the viability of producing birch syrup in the Northeast.
They had heard about people tapping birch trees for sap to make syrup. They had a pretty good-sized birch grove and thought they would try it.
They began tapping their birch trees a couple of years ago and have researched, worked with experts and experimented with making birch syrup. They built a sugarhouse on their property, invested in equipment, perfected their syrup and are ready to sell it.
The family’s first-run birch syrup was awarded first prize this year at the first International Birch Syrup and Sap Conference sponsored by Cornell University Extension Service at Paul Smith’s College in New York. They also received awards for their middle and late runs at the conference’s Taste of Birch event, Romanyshyn said.
They tap trees, using a smaller, three-sixteenths-inch tubing. It done right, it can create a vacuum on a steep slope, Romanyshyn said.
This past spring the family, including sons, Auley, 11, and Maurice, 9, put up 800 tappers and tapped 400 to 500 birch trees in the family grove. They hope to double or triple that next year.
“Birch is a little trickier to boil down. It burns easily,” he said. “You have to be gentle with it. You just don’t want it to boil fast.”
Birch sap has a lower sugar content than maple sap.
It takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make a gallon of maple syrup and at least 100 gallons of birch sap to make one gallon of birch syrup, Romanyshyn said.
“I really love birch syrup,” Dennison said. “I think it really tastes well.”
She described it as having multiple layers of tangy and deep woodsy flavors.
It is great on vanilla ice cream and in yogurt, sauces, glazes, mixed drinks, marinades and more, the couple said. It is also used to make beer, vodka and wine, Romanyshyn said. It is really good as icing or flavoring and is a really good-tasting sweetener, he said.
Auley substituted birch syrup in a maple-cream frosting and it tasted good, Dennison said.
Maine has an abundance of birch trees and Mainers should take advantage of the potential market, Romanyshyn said.
The couple are looking for other people who tap birch trees to buy sap from near Temple so they can make more syrup. Or people could tap their trees and help Maine build a brand.
Romanyshyn predicts birch syrup is going to become bigger and bigger in the state.
“The same way Vermont is known for its maple syrup, Maine can be known for its exceptionally fine-tasting birch syrup,” he said.
Birch sap season is very short. Last year, it was two weeks.
If everything is set up right, you can average a gallon of sap a day per tap, Romanyshyn said.
Birch sap needs warmer days that are above freezing and above-freezing temperatures at night for the best production.
The family canned about 30 gallons of syrup this year.
“Next year, we will have to make more,” Dennison said.
The syrup sells on varying websites from between $350 and $500 a gallon, Romanyshyn said.
Their syrup runs about $3.50 an ounce depending on the type of bottle it’s in.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
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