2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Birch sap is not only very tasty, but also extremely useful, because it contains an impressive amount of vitamins of group B and C, sucrose and all kinds of nutrients that allow not only to strengthen the immune system, but also to significantly improve overall well-being. That is why, with the onset of spring, you should not deny yourself the pleasure of getting miraculous juice straight from the tree! Even diabetics are allowed to drink such juice, because birch sugar, which is also called xylitol, is absorbed very quickly without having any effect on the level of insulin in the blood! In short, sheer benefit
When is the best time to start collecting?
The collection of birch sap usually begins at the end of March or at the very beginning of April, before the vegetative buds begin to swell on the birch trees, and the collection ends most often in mid-April, when active foliage formation begins on the trees. The most optimal time for collecting healthy juice will be the period from ten o'clock in the morning to six o'clock in the evening - closer to the night, sap flow in the trees is suspended.
The most suitable for collecting sap will not be the youngest trees, the age of which is within fifteen to twenty years. They can grow both in the thicket or in the forest, and in the summer cottage, the most important thing is that the birches are as far as possible from roads, industrial zones, large cities and highways, as well as from other equally polluted places. And the diameter of birches, from which it is best to collect juice, should be in the range from twenty to twenty-five centimeters - young trees as a result of this procedure can easily die. As a rule, one tree gives no more than five liters of juice, and it is recommended to collect no more than one liter per day - if you pump out the entire volume of juice from a tree at once, its vitality will be noticeably depleted.
And in order to determine whether the process of sap flow has started in the tree, you need to make a puncture in its trunk with the help of a thick awl - if after some time small drops of juice begin to appear outside, it's time to start collecting it.
How to collect the juice correctly?
To collect valuable sap, a small incision should be made in the trunk of a birch tree, or a small hole should be drilled in it with a drill (it is advisable to drill it at a height of at least one and a half meters from the soil surface). In this case, the depth of the hole should not exceed five centimeters, and the diameter of the drill should be no more than one centimeter.
A small groove is inserted into the resulting hole, which can be a new hose, as well as a clean plastic or glass tube, and the container intended for collecting juice is either fixed directly on the tree or placed on the ground. If you plan to take cocktail tubes with you to collect juice, then it is quite permissible to make five or six punctures in the tree. And if there is absolutely no groove available, you can simply cut a branch, the diameter of which will be slightly smaller than the neck of an ordinary plastic bottle, after which the branch is inserted into the bottle (in this case, it will take much more time to collect the juice). It is important to take into account that the northern side of birches boasts the largest accumulation of sap!
When the volumes of birch sap flowing into the container begin to decrease, the procedure is stopped - this behavior of the tree suggests that it begins to slowly overgrow the wound. So do not try to make new punctures in it - it is best to just move on to the next tree.
After collecting the sap, a groove is removed from the birch, and the hole is well covered with garden pitch or garden moss. You can use plasticine or laundry soap for these purposes. And in their absence, you need to insert at least a small wooden chip into the wound. It is best, of course, to resort to the help of a garden varnish - in this case, the trees will stop losing sap and will recover much faster, and harmful microorganisms will not be able to penetrate the wounds and harm the birches.
How to use and how to store the juice?
Ideally, birch sap is drunk fresh (it is especially tasty right after harvest). And it is allowed to store it for no more than three to four days in a glass jar in the refrigerator. As a rule, after this time, the juice begins to ferment, however, this does not mean at all that it needs to be poured out - such juice can be used to make kvass or various low-alcohol drinks. And if a lot of birch sap has been collected, you can preserve it for the winter and enjoy its benefits throughout the entire cold season!
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