...and flow it has! Well, we have been up to our ears in birch sap. :-) I can honestly say that the last two weeks have been spent doing nothing but boiling, boiling and more boiling of the hundreds of litres of sweet sap we have collected thusfar. The process has definitely been labour intensive -- it took us three days of boiling to make our first quarter cup! Of course, that wasn't without a few bumps along the road. Our very first batch, which we boiled down on an electric pancake griddle, had to be tossed. We started boiling at 9 in the morning and by the time it was midnight it still hadn't boiled down enough to be considered anywhere close to syrup consistency. So after much deliberation, we went to bed and left it boiling! Needless to say, we woke up to a black tarry film scorched on the bottom of the pan and had to start all over again. Arrrrgh!! We took this opportunity to think about how we could improve upon our boiling process, ha ha. For our next attempt, we decided to boil down the sap on the woodstove instead of the griddle. This ended up working very well for us. On our stove we have the capacity to boil down 20 litres of sap in approximately 5-6hours to the stage where it is very close to syrup and ready to be finished in the double boiler. Once the syrup is tranferred to the double boiler, it takes another 2-3 hours to thicken into syrup. The reason this process takes so long is because birch syrup burns if it is heated above 92 degrees celsius. A person, therefore has to simmer the sap vs. vigorously boiling it down -- hence the time involved. The work was worth it, though. The finished product tastes AMAZING! It is sweet and fruity and nothing like maple syrup at all, instead having it's own very unique taste. We are so excited about the results we decided to showcase the syrup at the Prince George Farmer's Market this Saturday. Yesterday we submitted our product to the board for approval and we should find out today or tomorrow whether we can peddle our wares. We'll keep you posted!

Apologies for the delay in-between posts -- it seems that Mother Nature gave us a delay in-between winter and spring! Since our visit to Moose Meadows Farm we have been lingering in a month of sub-zero temperatures and snow and haven't been able to do any birch tapping at all. We did, in the meantime though, order tapping supplies from them so we could atleast be fully prepared to get started. We purchased 20 spiles, 40 feet of plastic tubing, filters, a hydrometer to measure the sugar content of the syrup, an assortment of glass bottles, plus we gathered together a healthy supply of 4L buckets. We also "test-tapped" one birch tree on our property ahead of time so we could gauge exactly when the sap will start flowing.

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Finally today, to our excitement, it was warm enough that we were able to tap all of our birch trees and begin sap collection. The rule of thumb to keep in mind when tapping is to make sure the trees you select are approximately fifty to seventy years old and have a large trunk diameter. Older trees generate the most sap, plus they can withstand having a hole drilled into their trunk much better than young saplings. Tapping for sap actually doesn't cause excessive or irreversible harm to the tree. The tree will naturally heal on its own, plus one can ensure their complete recovery by tapping different trees each season. This year we decided to tap a dozen mature trees from one particular area of our property, set up a 4-litre bucket at each one, and are now waiting for the sap to flow fast enough to fill a bucket a day. Once we have collected enough sap (it takes 100L of sap to make 1L of syrup!) we will begin boiling it down. The season is approximately three weeks long, beginning when the temperatures are averaging 10 degrees above in the daytime and dropping to zero overnight. The sap starts flowing at first in tiny occasional drips of crystal-clear nectar, then progresses into a steady flow -- at which time some trees can produce up to 12 litres a day! -- and eventually changes to a cloudy appearance, typically at the first sign of buds on the branches. This signals the end of the syrup season because at this point the sap is no longer suitable for use.

As for us, at the end of the day today, we had collected enough sap to fill only an inch at the bottom of each bucket! The daytime temperatures forecasted for this week are in the teens, though, so we imagine the sap will start flowing more quickly very soon. We'll keep you posted!

Well, it's been a weekend of exciting ruralite adventures! On Friday we packed up the family, dropped the dog off at Grandma's and drove down to Moose Meadows Farm in Quesnel, BC (www.moosemeadowsfarm.ca) for a tour of their birch syrup sugar shack. One of our goals of rural living is to attempt to utilize and create as many unique and edible products as we can from nature right in our backyard (and, of course, have as much fun as we can doing it) and this spring we are going to try our hand at tapping birch trees -- that's right -- birch trees. "It's the UN-maple!"

As crazy as it sounds, tapping birch trees is not entirely new. In fact , it is practically a full blown industry in Alaska, with over 4000L produced there every year ! As for Canada, ten commercial producers are currently in operation (3 of those 10 being in British Columbia) and interest in the potential pancake alternative is growing. Ted and Heloise-Dixon Warren of Moose Meadows Farm are one of those producers, and we feel priveleged to be in such close proximity to them, as they represent one of the country's premiere authorities on birch tapping. Heloise has actually JUST PUBLISHED Canada's first Birch Syrup Production Manual and was more than eager to share her wisdom in person on her farm, as well as give us multiple taste tests!

It was a great learning experience for us and we left with renewed excitement to gather appropriate equipment and supplies throughout the upcoming weeks. If all goes according to plan, we hope to successfully tap 10-15 trees this year to produce approximately 8L of syrup. We will definitely keep you posted with details on the whole process!

YES YOU CAN!

Have you ever returned from a camping weekend road trip feeling extra alive from the natural high of being outdoors? Remember the carefree days of fun and freedom the last time you spent a week at the cottage? Imagine if you could live in your cottage all the time. Well, you can. We do, and we hope you will join us. We are starting a new ruralite movement and our goal is to make it possible to realize that you absolutely are able to choose to live this dream.

We have been living in our cottage for almost 1 year now and we are so excited to be here. Don't get us wrong, we understand the attraction of being in an urban center. We too thrive on being connected with people. The great thing about living in this day and age, though, is that more than ever before in the history of the planet it is possible to move to the middle of nowhere and remain connected. The internet is the ultimate cure for random periods of isolation and is available virtually anywhere in this huge country! Speaking of this huge country, the other great thing about living in this day and age in Canada, is the massive amount of unpopulated space that exists not that far removed from civilization. We are absolutely experiencing frontier living only one hour outside of a city. It is not a difficult challenge to get to the countryside if you live in urban Canada, that's for sure. This makes the transition from urban to rural living that much smoother. With relative ease we took a 180 with our lifestyle. We went from living in the city full-time and escaping to the cottage on the odd weekend or holiday to living in the cottage full-time, yet still having the ability to commute to the city if ever we need.

Our goal by being ruralites of course, is to be able to more fully live out the core values in which we already believe: living sustainably, growing and eating healthy food, eliminating the use of chemicals in our daily lives, being more active in the great outdoors, respecting the animal world around us, eliminating stress, increasing joy and giving back. With every day that goes by we are brainstorming new ways and researching seriously old ways to utilize the awesome earth we were given to fuel our livelihood. So with every new post we plan to share our adventures. Please come visit again!

Peace

Danny and Christine

IN AN ERA OF MASS URBANIZATION of both young and old alike we are making a choice. A choice to do something different. To start a movement, through couragious pioneering, stubborn stick-to-it-ness, a passion for nature and clean green sustainable living, a desire to experience harmony and oneness with our planet and a sense of the urgency of now, to go back to our roots and go RURAL.

Who are we? Our names are Christine and Danny and we live with our 5 month old daughter Eve in a log cabin in the rocky mountains of Northeastern British Columbia Canada. We moved to our cabin from Prince George (the urban center of Northern BC) in May of 2007 with the goal of transforming our lifestyle from the enslavement of capitalism to total sustainability.

It was, we think, a match made in heaven. When Christine and Danny met, Christine was cycling everyday to work and Danny -- a staunchly-opposed-to-logging mechanic living in a seriously-dependent-on-logging-city -- was on the brink of exploring environmental activism while he pondered his fit in this world. Danny had a piece of property out in the mountains nestled alongside the mighty Fraser, that grew an impressive blanket of wild green fiddleheads every spring; when he discovered that Christine (a Maritimer originally) not only knew that fiddleheads were a food, but how prepare them into a delicious delicacy (and did so that very first summer together) -- he knew that his dream of someday leaving the concrete jungle to become a full time ruralite could come true.

And so it has. And through this blog we hope to share our adventures in the great white north, where there are definitely more moose than people, as we attempt to live out our flower power dreams. Not only live them out, but empower anyone and everyone who stops by to have a read to make it known that it IS possible to live the good life on your own terms. We have but a limited number of days in this lifetime so why not make the most of it! Power to the people! You too, can BE A RURALITE!!

Peace!

Christine and Danny