2008 HARVEST:

Stardate 5/7/08:
For those of you wondering...we are still in the throes of harvest - our second latest ever. It began April 29th on the homestead and a bit earlier in town. Late harvests are generally quite intense; fast and furious ... and every day is a battle with spring break up making access to trees increasingly difficult. This year is no exception! We are hoping that the spring remains cool for another 10 days or so - so we might have a full harvest. Then bring on the Alaskan sunshine! Pure, certified organic birch syrup should be up on the site by this weekend! Hang in there!!

Stardate 3/24/08:
It's that time of year again, and our sap collectors are arriving from Wyoming, Minnesota, South Pole station, and Utah. It has been a warm March, but February was cold with a great deal of snow - so, while most Alaskans are ready for winter to be over, we are hoping for a long, cool spring! That's the best for a good, sweet harvest. In a monumental effort to increase production, Michael and I are dividing our forces and running two evaporators this year. We hope it works and that we're not completely gray by the time we're finished! I have sap collectors from Willow, Big Lake, Wasilla, and Palmer all ready to deliver sap to our satellite syrup production. This will be a new experience for me - we've always collected all of it ourselves! Michael will run a crew on the homestead, as usual, and he will have 6 very qualified helpers. It should be a good season. Stay tuned...

2007 HARVEST: Stardate 4/4/07:
As I write, we are preparing for our 18th harvest - I find that so hard to believe! My daughters, now almost 17 and 14, have grown up with five seasons - summer, fall, winter, spring, and "syrup season"! After record cold January and February, winter is finally loosening its grip; the sun feels warm, the days are long, and the eaves drip icy water on my neck as I head out the door in the afternoon. As the trees and ground begin to thaw, the sap will drip-drip-drip into our buckets - 3300 of them this year - and our "syrup season" will begin. We are tired of running out of syrup so, if the birches smile on us, we will increase production by about 30%. Our 2007 harvest birch syrup should be available by the first week in May. Enjoy the springtime, as we do, with its promise of light and warmth, new life, and abundant sweetness!

2007 HARVEST STATISTICS and REPORT: Stardate 6/4/07:
Wow! That was a whirlwind of a season! We started collecting on April 19th, and finished 21 days later, on May 9th. There was very little snow on the ground, so we parked the snowmobiles early, and moved on to collection using the "big rigs" - our Polaris 6 wheelers with tracks. It was a tough season on the 6 wheelers - it seemed that one or another was in the shop continually, with our esteemed mechanics, Charlie and Michael, underneath trying to diagnose and repair. We finally had to quit collection when two of our four machines were vying for attention - one with serious transmission issues, and the other with a cracked frame. No biggie! But big enough to shut down the operation. It was about time anyway. By then we had collected 60,500 gallons of sap from 3300 total trees, over the 21 days. From that sap, we made a whopping 640 gallons of syrup - greatly exceeding our expectations - with a sap:syrup ratio of about 95:1. Each tree produced an impressive 25 ounces of syrup. The trees were generous with their sap this year; and we thank them for that. We also have many thanks for our sap-sucking crew this year - Robin, JonO, Roselie, and Tom Pi - for sticking with it through one of our most difficult harvests in 18 years. We couldn't have done it without them!

2006 HARVEST STATISTICS:
Due to the cold spring, it was a little slow, very steady, and quite long - 22 days. Our first collection day was April 20th - also a bit late. We collected 40,000 gallons of sap and produced 430 gallons of syrup. Due to the cold season and ice in buckets, the sap was very sweet, resulting in a lower sap to syrup ratio and very sweet, light syrup. Try it; supplies will definitely be limited this year!

2004 HARVEST SEASON
Stardate 1/26/07...Obviously, we have been a little too busy to update this harvest page for, well, several years; but 2004 still represents our best harvest ever and a good snapshot of our unique remote birch sap harvest. Maybe this year I'll be able to update ... It's always good to be optimistic...

Our 2004 sap harvest was an average year in some ways, but extraordinary in others. We had an average 21 days, starting on our average start date of April 16th, and ended up with an average sap to syrup ratio of 97:1. The temperatures were a bit above average but did not cause us problems like the heat wave of 2002. What was not average was the quality of our crew and the wonderful syrup we made this year!

We were incredibly lucky to lure Beren Argetsinger back again for his third year. We promoted him from “Captain Ropak” to General Sapsucker and made sure he had plenty of good food, good beer, and ample phone time to his sweetie in New York. Lyndsey Larsen came to us from “Downtown Canada”, (better known as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), as a volunteer hoping to learn the fine art of birch syrup production from the pros, and start his own operation someday in the Yukon.
Long time friend and Alaskan, Charlie LaForge, came up from Kenai for his third year as well, to get a break from Alaskan “city life” and find the true meaning of life – back to basics, making birch syrup in the bush.

This year we retired Sally, our long time friend and partner in this operation. She served twelve years in the sap trenches – long enough for even the hardiest of workers! She spent just under a week with us this year and then Charlie stepped in to take over the syrup-making duties with me. He proved to be a natural at the evaporator and in the syrup kitchen – and enjoyed his stints in the house kitchen as well, competing with Michael to create gourmet meals for the crew. We made truly exceptional syrup this year as well! In Sally’s absence, we needed just a bit more help, and recruited Thom Gage from Fairbanks to help us get over the hump. That rounded out our crew – along with daughters Hannah, who enjoyed a little mud while waited anxiously to return to town life, and Kaila, our good-cheer girl and cookie-maker extraordinaire. We can’t forget our beloved canine companions, Cisco and Chica, either. They provide comic relief and unconditional love when it is most needed!

Despite the usual array of problems and breakdowns, we tapped into the biggest and one of the best sap seasons we have ever had – 43,500 gallons collected over 21 days, our biggest harvest ever, by far. We processed 3000 gallons of sap into syrup on our biggest day! Now that was a record, and no easy feat! This weather again was a bit warm for springtime in Alaska, and did present a few problems…..
Snow levels were pretty low when we started, so the transitions from our snow machine collection rigs to our 6 wheeler collection rigs came very shortly after tree- tapping. There are always a few days in there where nothing really works very well. Once the frost went out of the ground, a little sooner than expected, we were getting stuck in the mud on our sap collecting forays. This transitional part of the season is not easy for anyone, not to mention the equipment! Quick bush repairs by Michael or Charlie (who can both switch from syrup maker to gourmet chef to mechanic with no problem) were a common occurrence this season.

Our sap log entry for Wednesday, April 21st gives a little snapshot of the life of a Kahiltna Birchworks Sapsucker: “Lyndsey has a bad day. What didn’t happen…pump died, spilled sap, forgot bails, stuck five times one run, ran over hose…….” And on Tuesday May 4th: “Thom lost a pump! Ripped clean off trailer when outline snagged on tire! He didn’t know it… just kept going. Beren found it buried in the mud…..”
As always, it was a challenging season, but all worked out well in the end, mostly due to our great help – and, of course, our awesome forest of birches! Where would we be without them? Once again we wondered… what else would we do during break-up in Alaska?

2004 Season Stats:

• Sap harvested: 43,500 gallons raw sap
• Syrup produced: 450 gallons pure birch syrup
• Harvest dates: April 16th thru May 6th
• Length of season: 21 days
• Number of taps: 2400
• Average sap/tree/day: .87 gallons
• Average syrup produced /tree: 24 ounces

Birch Syrup Production Promotes Sustainable Use of Alaska's Forest Resources.