Harvest Journal
The 2022 harvest blog reflects on an unpredictable, lower-yield 20-day season, as unseasonably warm March weather gave way to a cold snap that locked up the trees and cut the early run short. Despite theories and hard facts about supply and rising prices, the entry closes with gratitude for the crew and the birch trees.
This 2021 year-end reflection turns from a modest sap harvest toward gratitude for what the trees share and the gatherings that sustain us. It offers a land acknowledgment for the unceded lands of the Dena'ina Ełnena, honoring Indigenous stewardship and an honorable harvest.
This spring 2020 entry balances an invitation to tap your own backyard birches, a mineral-rich spring tonic and a fun project for cooped-up families, with the hard news that the farm chose not to harvest that year over coronavirus concerns for crew safety and income.
Marking 30 years of tapping Alaska birches, this entry celebrates an anniversary alongside the earliest sap flow the farm has ever seen, with March-collected sap yielding first-day reserve syrup on April Fool's Day. This post reflects on adapting to earlier harvests and gratitude for a veteran crew.
The 2018 harvest wrap-up marks the end of a wet, cool 22-day season, with abundant snow making for high-quality sap and, as the farm puts it, sublime syrup. A crew pulls 11,000 taps and cleans the system while the woods green up, turning the farm's attention from the flow of sap to the coming flow of summer visitors.
With sap running in the Talkeetna birches starting April 9th, a crew of seven spends four hard days tapping 10,500 trees and hauls in the first 1,600 gallons of clear sap. This entry traces the full path from tree to bottle, through hoses, transfer lines, reverse osmosis, and the evaporator.