Pine Cone Syrup
Pine trees are beautiful! Tall, statuesque, the queens of the forest! They provide so many things, not just lumber from the wood. We can gather sap, also called rosin or resin, for soothing antiseptic remedies. Pine pollen from the catkins of pine trees is an androgen, great for regulating hormones of testosterone and estrogen. Even pine bark bacon! But I believe my most favorite thing that pine trees give us, is pinecone syrup!
Once the syrup is made, it can be used in a variety of ways. I like to make Christmas Tree Soda with my grandson while we decorate the tree. It’s refreshing and easy to make. Of course, we also make rustic pancakes with several seeds and grains, including yellow dock seed.
The process for creating this lovely couldn’t be simpler! Sugar and pinecones are all it takes. I prefer brown sugar, but other sugars can be used. Light brown sugar is made with cane sugar and molasses but that’s another post. There is also turbinado sugar, dark brown sugar, and others.
Some recipes mention using equal amounts of sugar and pinecones. But I prefer to just eyeball it, using as much as I need to cover everything. That is an important note; make sure at the end, all the pinecones are covered with sugar. For a gallon jar filled with pinecones, I used about three pounds of brown sugar. That sounds like a lot! But remember, a serving is only a couple tablespoons per serving, so this recipe makes a lot of syrup.
How to Make the Syrup:
I start by gathering my pinecones. This particular batch was gathered from a small Black Pine tree in my backyard. It always produces lots of 2-3″ cones and plenty of pollen catkins in spring. Other pines have different shapes and sizes of cones an0d may be gathered at different times in the spring. It’s June here in Zone 7. To harvest, use good, sharp pruning shears to snip the cone from the branch. These cones grow in clusters, so clipping between the branch and the bunch of cones took a little bit of effort. Some cones were forming in singles. They were a bit easier to clip.
Back in the kitchen with a basket of cones, select a jar of appropriate size. I wanted a lot of syrup for small bottles as gifts later, so I used a clean gallon-sized jar with lid. A swing-top jar is great for convenience. The recipe can be adjusted for one quart or two-quart sized jars, depending on the number of cones you gathered. It takes three pounds of cones for a gallon. With smaller cones it might take more, since they will be packed more tightly in the jar and fit together more closely. Don’t hesitate to gather a variety of cones for variety.
Begin by layering green cones in the bottom of the jar. Then spoon brown sugar over the cones, enough to pretty much cover them. Sprinkle a few needles in over the sugar and added another layer of cones and repeated with the sugar. That’s it! Continue layering cones, sugar, and needles until the jar was filled to the shoulders. You’ll want to up with sugar on top, completely covering the cones. I used a piece of parchment with the lid so that metal would not come in contact with the sugary syrup. It won’t hurt the syrup, but I just used this method as a precaution. Metal lids can rust eventually and using parchment inside a metal lid is a habit I got into a long time ago.
These cones were so fresh, by the time I had the jar filled, I could see the sap and liquid beginning to melt the sugar.
Think of sliced strawberries with sugar, how the juice of the strawberries is pulled out of the berry, making syrup with fruit. This is the same maceration action that the cones will have when immersed in the sugar.
The syrup will form in the bottom of the jar, and some sugar might still be solid but covered by syrup. After a few days, if the cones are exposed, I will add more sugar to keep the cones covered. Once a day, for a week or two, I’ll roll the jar around to move the sugar at the bottom to help it dissolve.
After the sugar has dissolved, you might find there is room for more cones in the jar. If you have more available, by all means fill the jar and repeat the process. If you have plenty of syrup forming, you can transfer to a smaller jar. I did add a few more to the jar, but it was not full. I transferred to another jar to save space in my pantry, but you do not have to do this step.
Once the sugar has melted, you are left with an infused syrup in the jar. Just make sure there is enough syrup in the jar to cover the cones. You can either cover the cones with more sugar or remove some of the cones so they are not exposed to air. Cones left out of syrup could possibly spoil and mold. It would be a shame to ruin this deliciousness! See what you can do with the removed pinecones here:
Let the jar of cones and syrup rest in a cabinet for a few months. I like to start a jar of pinecone syrup in the spring/early summer months when cones are green, and then let it age until the holiday season.
Strain the syrup into another jar and catch the cones using a sieve and funnel. The syrup is ready to use as is! Personally, I like to add rice wine vinegar to the mixture for a completely different flavor! The vinegar will help preserve the syrup longer and provide an unexpected flavor in the syrup. It makes tonic water come alive! Try Christmas Tree Soda.
Here’s another use for the leftover pine cones:
