Birch trees are a tremendous New England commodity. The wood is used for a variety of products, from furniture, flooring and fuel to kitchen utensils, toys and Popsicle sticks. The trees enhance the beauty of our landscape while providing food and shelter for wildlife. Yet birch trees offer another valuable resource that remains untapped here in the northeast-the sap.

Like sugar maples, the sap that flows up through birch trees in early spring is sweet and tasty. It also contains important vitamins and minerals, like vitamin C, potassium, manganese, and calcium. Herbalists and Native American Indians have long known of its medicinal benefits but its place in the confectionery market is yet to be determined. Europeans are bottling birch sap, Alaskans are producing syrup from it, and a sole New Hampshire Master Gardener is making beer.

There are plenty of birches scattered throughout New England, so why aren't more enterprising yankees tapping birch trees? Hillsborough County Cooperative Extension forester agent Jon Nute told me he thinks it's tradition. Sugar maples are plentiful in what we call the sugar bush. We've established a nice niche in the maple industry. Marketing birch might be a tough sell. Perhaps all we need is a little education.

The production of birch syrup is an emerging cottage industry in Alaska. No sugar maple trees grow there but plenty of birches do, and the population is chock full of adventurers willing to try something new. Within the last decade, a handful of hearty souls have been developing a commercial operation that is causing other syrup producers to sit up and take notice. In recent years, they've been producing between a thousand and 1500 gallons of birch syrup annually and marketing it as a unique Alaskan delicacy.

Tapping birch trees is much like tapping maple, but the similarity between the two ends there. In spring, when the sap begins to flow, a hole is drilled into the tree and a spout, called a spile, is inserted to direct the sap into a bucket or through a plastic tube. (For what it's worth-early collectors of maple sap used buckets made from birch bark.) Here's the biggest reason New Englanders may be less than enthused about producing birch syrup: the actual sugar content of birch sap is about a third that of maple. To make one gallon of birch syrup you need u pwards of a hundred gallons of sap; maple syrup requires only forty.

Ninety-nine gallons of water is a formidable amount to extract to get a single gallon of birch syrup. Boiling works, but it takes a lot of time and fuel. Continued cooking of the sap also darkens the color. Dulce Ben-East, owner of Kahiltna Birchworks and one of the early Alaska birch sap entrepreneurs, told me reverse osmosis technology is most effective, but the equipment is expensive; another drawback for thrifty yankees.

The typical birch season doesn't run all that long, either. Those warm spring days we're looking forward to are a double-edged whammy for birch sap. It tends to spoil more quickly than maple so rising daytime temperatures may necessitate more frequent sap collection from buckets. Plus, as soon as those buds begin to break, the season is over. Birch sap then gets cloudy and the taste changes dramatically.

For all this trouble, you must be wondering, "Why bother?" The obvious answer would be taste. Ms. Ben-East describes birch syrup as having a completely different flavor from maple, one that's more complex and versatile. She says, "The flavor is deep and velvety, caramel-like; somewhat richer to me than maple and not quite as cloyingly sweet. Don't get me wrong--I love the flavor of maple syrup. However, I do not try to compare apples with oranges."

Curious New Englanders might choose the path New Hampshire Master Gardener Diana Proctor has taken, which requires far less sap and minimal effort. Diana has a keen interest in edible plants and medicinal herbs and takes advantage of any opportunity to learn more. One of the topics at an herb conference was on healing beers so she decided to give it a try with birch.

Using Stephen Harrod Buhner's book Sacred Herbal Healing Beers for her recipes, Diana tapped a couple of the birches on her property: one golden and one white. She gathered about two-and-a-half gallons of sap, which she boiled for an hour (for no other reason than to kill bacteria). Diana than added the appropriate amount of honey, allowed it to cool, added yeast and nutrients, and waited for it to ferment. Obviously, this is not the beverage you offer the kids. After a couple of weeks, Diana bottled her brew and waited a few more weeks. She reports the results were delicious, and got even better with age. This season, if she can get through the snow, Diana hopes to gather enough sap to make more beer and experiment with a batch of birch wine.

Tapping trees, whether birch or maple, does hurt the trees to some extent. Any opening in a tree, whether from your tap or a broken branch, offers an entry for insects and disease. The risk, however, seems not great. The maple industry certainly hasn't suffered any from this practice but, obviously, the jury's still out on birch. When the season is over, simply pull the taps and allow the trees to heal by themselves. Covering the wounds with "Band-Aids" of any type will do more harm than good. Although the trees will continue to ooze for a while, especially the birches, the trees are not stressed and will eventually stop.

Any variety of birch tree can be tapped for its sap, although golden and black have a more distinct "wintergreen" flavor. White paper birches are just as desirable as the others, and are certainly plentiful around New England. Using the maple rule-of-thumb, the trees should be at least ten inches in diameter and additional taps may be added for each five inches of girth, but you'll be hard-pressed to find many birches that size in our region.

For more information about birch trees and the birch syrup industry, tap the resources of the Internet. The web site of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension has some interesting articles and information on a fun program developed for schools called "Tapping into Spring." Kahiltna Birchworks will happily sell you their birch products, which include syrup as well as candy, but you'll also find the story of how their business is evolving. Diana Proctor has found plenty of wine recipes on the Internet but there's nothing like paging through resources from local wine- and beer-making supply outlets, bookstores and the library, especially while you're waiting for that sap to flow.

Call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Education Center's Info-Line toll free at 1-877-398-4769 for "Practical Solutions to Everyday Questions." Trained volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday from 9:00am to 2:00pm.

Jackie Bower, Master Gardener University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Hillsborough County