OneTree Alaska selling holiday birch treats and luminaria

OneTree is selling syrups of different sizes, caramels and decorated birch
sticks. Photo by Homyna Curiel

OneTree Alaska is once again selling birch syrup, caramels, birch syrup sticks and ice luminaria to help support its forest education outreach and research program.

Volunteers and staff will sell the birch sweets and luminaria from 5-7 p.m. weekdays and from 11 a.m. -4 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 22. A 4-ounce bag of 30-plus caramels sells for $16, syrup ranges from $12 to $48 and ice luminaria made in 3-gallon buckets are $10 each. Three decorated birch sticks sell for $7.50. The sticks can serve as edible ornaments.

OneTree is in the Lola Tilly Commons, on the side facing the Patty Center. The office can be reached through the west and east entrances.

The birch products are made from sap collected this spring by 55 households and classrooms as part of the birch sap cooperative coordinated by OneTree. Participants get birch syrup or other products, based on the amount of sap they provide.

Proceeds support the OneTree program, which is affiliated with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The program provides forest education to students, and conducts research on birch sap processing methods and on the conditions that lead to when sap flow begins and peaks. It also works with individuals interested in small-scale production of birch syrup or birch sap products.

OneTree coordinator Jan Dawe is inspired by maple research facilities at Cornell University and in Vermont that support their research through sales of maple syrup products.

Dawe is seeking community volunteers who wish to work from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14 and Dec. 21, to wrap and bag caramels and decorate birch syrup sticks. For more information or to volunteer, contact Dawe at 474-5907.

OneTree has also been recently accepted as a nonprofit for the Fred Meyer Community Rewards program.