Fireweed Syrup

I awoke one early morning and still half-asleep made my way downstairs. Quinn was still happily sleeping upstairs until I cried with a loud voice "QUINN! There's BLOOD everywhere!"

Don't worry. Besides Quinn getting very scared and running like a gust of wind down the stairs to make sure I was okay, we're fine. It's poor Greta who wasn't fine...

There were little bloody paw prints all over our floor, some even on the stairs (though in my early morning fog I hadn't seen them). We believe Greta jumped down from our bed in the middle of the night (which is very high off the floor) and because of this, a toe nail on her right front paw was coming out at a terrible angle. We hadn't woken up to her wining or barking at all during the night, so we think she might have been half asleep too.

Everything turned out fine in the end though! As I drove to work, Quinn drove Greta to the vet and got her paw all fixed with some extra shots to boot (she was so angry with the vet afterwards that she wouldn't even take the treat he offered her!).

Because of Greta's amazing flying act off the bed, she got to wear a bandage and a plastic bag for the next two days. And boy, did she despise her bandage.

The plastic bag was really only to keep the bandage dry, but it was so funny hearing Greta as she crashed through the grass and underbrush of our favorite trail. A crinkling sound followed her everywhere, and had Quinn and I laughing quite a bit!


We were out at our favorite trail picking flowers and buds off the abundant fireweed, Alaska's state flower. It is named the Fireweed because it is the first thing that is said to grow after a forest fire. By watching the fireweed, you can also tell when summer is nearing its end. If the flowers are high on the stock and starting to turn into fluff, autumn is not far away!

Though you can't tell from the pictures, it seemed like we were getting poured on by the clouds above us! By the time we were finished all three of us were soaking wet and ready to go home. Haha!

Here I am dancing in the rain, Greta of course had to join in as well.

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Back home, we cleaned and washed the flowers and buds and put them on the stove with sugar and water to make syrup. 

Oh, I wish you could see the bright fusia color of the finished fireweed syrup! One of the prettiest things I've ever canned I think, hands-down (though, yes, I haven't yet canned much).

It took a while to use our pretty syrup sadly. With two very busy schedules, Quinn and I were so excited to finally get to try this sweet treat one evening on a family favorite: pancakes! And YUM. Was it ever fantastic!

(And of course we had to use of our frozen blueberries from early last month.)

Greta is feeling much better now, praise Jesus! And we are super happy with our first try at fireweed syrup, which I'm sure will be given away as gifts and made again next summer as well. That's always the best test you can do on a recipe I think: how soon do you want to make it again?