Spruce tip honey – homemade vegan forest honey

The breath of the trees gives us life! Every May, the spruces and firs sprout. You can easily make a delicious vegan forest honey, a spruce tip honey, from the young spruce tips. Alternatively, you can also use fir tips (fir shoots, fir tops) or mix both.

With my recipe for spruce tip honey you can capture the taste of the forest!

Spruce tip honey is not only incredibly delicious. It is also very healthy

My vegan spruce honey is not only incredibly delicious on bread, in tea or in dressings and marinades, it is also very healthy. Young spruce and fir shoots contain a lot of vitamin C and they have an expectorant effect. This honey is also very nice as a cough medicine for colds.

Distinguishing between spruces and firs

You can easily distinguish between spruces and firs. The spruce stings, the fir doesn’t. Spruces have slightly sharper needles, firs have slightly rounded ones.
The only poisonous conifer here in Germany is the yew, so you have to be careful not to confuse them.
Only forage what you can identify 100%.

What do spruce tips taste like?

Spruce tips carry the aroma of the essential oils of the spruce, but not as intensely as the wood or older needles. They taste surprisingly lemony, especially after preparation. There is also a sweet note, which is why they are also good to snack straight from the tree.

When are spruce tips best collected?

Spruce and fir tips are collected in spring. You can harvest them from around mid-April, depending on how warm it is, until late May.

From April onwards, the young, new shoots grow on spruces and firs. You can easily recognize them because they are light green and much softer and more delicate than the old tips.

You can harvest them until late May. As long as they have their light green, fresh color.

Spruce tip syrup – vegan forest honey

My spruce tip honey is basically a very thick syrup that has been boiled down. It forms threads like honey, has the golden-rosy-dark color of a good forest honey and is incredibly aromatic. Like my dandelion honey, this is the perfect alternative for anyone who loves honey but wants to leave the bees alone. And of course for anyone who simply enjoys a sweet treat.

Make your own spruce tip honey

Making your own spruce tip honey is not difficult, especially if you follow my recipe. You have to acount in a few resting times to get the aroma. And by boiling a syrup and simply reducing it, you can make a delicious, vegan spruce tip honey.

Spruce tip honey: the preparation in pictures

Here you can see in pictures how I prepare this homemade honey. Afterwards we are going straight to the recipe.

Ingredients for approx. 1.2 l of spruce tip honey:

200 g spruce tips (or fir tips)
1 l water
2 organic lemons, sliced
Approx. 1000 g sugar

Preparation:

1. Wash the spruce tips and then pour the water over them in a bowl.
2. Place a plate or something similar on or in the bowl so that the spruce tips are completely covered with water.
3. Let it rest for 12 hours.
4. Add the lemon slices.
5. Bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes.
6. Strain the spruce tips and collect the liquid.
7. Weigh the spruce stock and add the same amount by weight of sugar.
8. Simmer on a low heat until the liquid becomes syrupy. This takes 30-60 minutes. You can do a gelling test every now and then by putting a few drops of spruce tip honey on a cold plate. If the honey is stringy and thick enough, it is ready.
9. Pour the hot honey into very clean jars and seal them immediately.
10. The honey will keep fresh until the next season without any problem.

Bon apetit!