Summer, 2022 - Its tough to keep a toddler in daycare so when life hands you a runny nose, make syrup! But before you get too excited, please note that this is a short blurb on pine cone syrup, snot syrup is beyond the scope of this blog. Mugolio which I believe is Italian for something like syrup from mugo pines has been on my mind a lot recently. Making maple syrup from the PNW's big leaf maples is technically feasible but the yields per tree are low and the sugar content is even lower so I was looking for another way to get more trees in my diet.
While the little guy was rocking out, I gathered some pinecones from a tree literally hanging over the playground and stuffed them into my coat. Sappy, green cones are the target and you simply chop them up and mix 1:1 with brown sugar and wait at least a month. The two containers below were stuffed to the brim but overnight a ton of moisture is pulled from the cones and dissolves the sugar. You might even see some fermentation depending on the cone type. I believe you can leave on the counter for the duration but I chickened out and let them stew for the remainder of the time in the fridge.
I only managed to wait a month but after boiling and straining the syrup the product is shelf stable and awesome. The syrup is on par with a maple syrup for viscosity and there was both a molasses thing going on as well as a sense of forest smacking the nostrils, quite possibly my best foraging success to date. Every species of tree is going to yield something different but I'll probably be sticking to pines and firs for awhile. The second attempt was using little cones from a redwood/sequoia looking tree and they had a strong soapiness.
If you want to get in on the experience there are a lot of foragers online with much more scientific breakdowns of what to expect from different cone types and even some non-cone options like juniper or spruce tips.
