'tis the season for spruce

We hand-harvest spruce tips during a brief window in spring, when the soft needles are a shiny, light green and plump with volatile oils. The aromatics of spring ephemerals are notoriously difficult to catch with alcohol extraction, but are readily captured with sugars. Lilac, spruce and violet can all be extracted in a traditional tincture, and have much medicinal value- but the heady volatiles escape. Instead, we layer the fresh flowers or needles with raw demerara and allow the sugar to draw the juices, to become a potent syrup.