Every spring, people go out of their way to make, buy and eat maple syrup. There is an alternative: birch syrup.
Trussler’s Pantry near Matheson makes its own birch syrup. The process is basically the same as maple syrup, but instead of boiling sap, it’s simmered in a process that takes three times as long.
Owner Kara Trussler says you can use it on pancakes for a molasses taste, but it works better in cooking.
“You would sauté salmon in it,” she outlines. “Or you would replace – any cookie recipe that asks for vanilla and you would substitute it with those 2 tsp. of birch syrup, and it just completely changes the taste of your dish.”
Trussler says it’s diabetic friendly because it’s fructose, not sucrose. And it comes straight from the tree, so it’s vegan friendly, too.
“The whole process is done organically. It’s all done by hand,” she says. “We grab those buckets, we bring them into the evaporator, we evaporate and then we turn it into syrup, get the syrup into the jar and put it on the shelf.”
Because it’s a longer, more labour intensive process than maple syrup, birch syrup costs two to three times more.