When I think of smothering my pancakes
in syrup, I think about the sugary goodness that comes from maple trees. I’ve
never even considered the possibility of getting syrup from any other tree, in
fact I don’t even think of it as maple syrup, to me it’s just syrup. Chloe
Mattilio, on the other hand, has thought long and hard about her syrup, and has
decided to conduct research on the possibility of making syrup from birch sap.
Mattilio is a student at Paul Smith’s College, so she has plenty of knowledge
in forestry and access to numerous birch trees for her study. Mattilio hopes to
turn birch sap into a health beverage or a healthier syrup alternative. She
shouldn’t have too tough of a time investigating this considering the extensive
research already done on maple trees, but this is still quite the endeavor for
a full time college student, and the results could prove both interesting and
profitable.
The idea
for the project began last year after Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive
Center (VIC) held a birch sap conference. Professor Celia Evans recognized that
maple trees should not be the only ones used in the syrup industry and asked
around for any information on birches. No one at the conference had much to
say, so Evans brought the idea to her students, and Mattilio was eager to
conduct the study. The study will take place both at Paul Smith’s VIC and
Cornell University’s Uihlein Maple Field Station in Lake Placid. Matillio’s
plan is to study yellow and paper birches for “canopy type, aspect and diameter,”
and will tap them for sap (Levine). She is modelling most of her research off
of what has been previously done with maples, and will correctly adjust for
differences with birch trees. Because of birch sap’s low sugar content, about
twice as much birch sap is needed to make the same amount of syrup that maple
sap makes (Levine). Not only is Mattilio getting recognition for being the
first to conduct this research, but she has high earning potential since birch
sap drinks are popular in northern Europe.
Due to the
magnitude of the maple syrup business, Mattilio could be entering herself into
an emerging market, and she is very happy to provide the necessary information
for others to enter the market as well. “It’s exciting, nobody’s done this
before. There’s a lot of potential,” said Mattilio when asked about her project
(Levine). Although her study is limited due to her limited resources as a
college student, she hopes to learn enough from this study to get the birch sap
market started and encourage others to conduct additional research on the
subject. Who knows, maybe in a few years birch will be the new maple.
Levine, Justin A.
"Birch Sap Study Gets Juices Flowing." LakePlacidNews.com.
N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
I never really though that you could get syrup from other trees besides maple. This sounds like a really cool experiment to carry out. I wonder if there's a difference between the flavors of the syrup. I also really want to taste birch syrup now. Since Birch syrup has a lower sugar content, I wonder if it would cost more to produce. Great article topic!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! My mom is a teacher, and she makes Maple syrup with her students annually. She's going to be bringing that maple syrup over to Madagascar when she takes her students there this summer. Even though there is a language barrier, her and her students will try to explain the tapping and collecting idea in a region that has never heard of collecting sap from trees. It will be interesting to see what they make of it, and if they try to tap some of their own trees to collect the sap (even though there is no maple in that region).
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