The last couple of weeks have been unusually warm and summer is now in full swing. Everything is blooming and growing. Spruce shoots are at their best now and I’m gathering my yearly basket full of spruce shoots in order to turn them into syrup.
This beautiful red syrup has a wonderful, foresty flavor and on top of that, it’s also a great remedy against a sore throat in the wintertime.
I make spruce shoot syrup with two different flavors – one with spruce shoots only and the second with added vanilla extract. I’ll use the vanilla-flavored syrup for making spruce shoot ice cream – so friends, welcome to our place to try it out!
This time I’m using some of the spruce tips in spruce shoot liqueur. The shoots are enjoying the hot summer day drowned in booze on our balcony. 🙂
Where, when and what to pick
- The shoots have to be picked when they’re fresh and light green, the older they get the more the taste changes.
- I got my spruce shoots from trees in our garden – In Finland the permit of a landowner is needed when picking these since they’re not a part of the all man rights.
- You can control the growth of the spruce by taking off the shoots. That’s why I choose carefully which shoots I collect and make sure that our future Christmas trees become bushy.
- Never take anything from the top of the spruce if you wanna keep the tree happy.
?
Whats wrong if it doesnt turn redish?
Hi Mats! No idea why I saw your comment only now. :/ I have never had that problem. Could it be that you didn’t use enough spruce shoots? I would love to hear if you managed to solve the problem! 🙂