I'm making spruce syrup. I was foraging in our nearby Benedictine monastary gardens. They have the most beautiful Norwegian Spruce trees with cones in bloom. I had been reading  a recipe for Mugolio at the fantastic website of Alan Bergo, and thought, hey! It's the pandemic, why shouldn't I drink the fermented juice of pine cones? 

I have a few batches that sat in the summer sun for months, I haven't yet gotten around to bottling them. Soon. It's almost maple syrup season here, so I should get off my butt and call Ray to see if I can hang with him at his sugar shack and help make syrup this year, which gives me a perfect reason not to bottle the current batches. I did read that Romanians make a syrup and leave it to ferment for about a year, so I'm right on schedule.

Here is a first batch of cones ready for trimming and maceration. More photos to follow.