Extraction of birch sap. Time, place of collection, storage and medicinal properties of birch sap

Birch sap has been harvested since the beginning of March, its strongest flow is observed in April. This is due to the fact that when snow melts, a large amount of water enters the root of the tree. In this regard, large reserves of starch accumulated in the roots and trunk are converted into sugar, which dissolves in water. The movement of sap, which is also called the "weeping birch", begins about a month before the first leaves bloom. So those who want to try delicious and healthy drink There are approximately 15-20 days to collect it.

What is useful birch sap

Birch sap has positive impact on the whole organism, with its help not only preventive measures are possible, but also a full-fledged treatment of diseases:
- urolithiasis;
- stomach ulcers;
- bronchitis and cough;
- rheumatism, arthritis and gout.

The drink will help in the fight against infections and harmful microorganisms. It is actively used to combat skin diseases and inflammatory processes of various origins.

Juice increases the overall tone, removes the feeling of fatigue, drowsiness and irritability. In addition, it performs a regenerating function and stimulates the normal course of metabolism.

Rules for the use of birch sap

Having collected birch sap, it is necessary to bottle it, adding 2 tsp to each. Sahara. Store in a dark and cold room.

IN medicinal purposes apply only Fresh Juice, it can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 2 days.

maple sap

Maple begins to bloom quite early, and gives juice about three weeks before flowering, already in early March. It appears much earlier than birch, and there is not much time for collection. It is worth noting that the juice stands out more abundantly on a sunny day, and in frosts it completely stops flowing.

Benefits of maple sap

The drink contains a large number of elements that are very important for the human body. These are vitamins, minerals and organic acids. Maple sap is famous for its bactericidal properties, so it can be used as an antiseptic for wounds. It is useful for beriberi, asthenia, as a prophylactic for colds, especially during the season of SARS.

What to look for when collecting and consuming tree sap

The quality and useful properties of juices are directly dependent on the location of the tree. Therefore, do not collect them in polluted areas, such as near industrial plants, roads and railways.

Those who are limited in their intake of sugar should remember that it is present in the composition of juices. Therefore, the use of juice should be discussed with your doctor.

It is worth noting that coniferous trees also give juice, which is called "gum". It has a different consistency, because it already hardens on the bark of a tree, but it has excellent medicinal properties. As a rule, they are aimed at strengthening immunity, increasing general condition body and the fight against spring beriberi and asthenia.

Tip 2: Benefits Birch juice for the body, how to collect and store it

Previously, the people considered birch sap almost a panacea for all diseases. There was an opinion that during the season you need to drink about 10 liters of this valuable drink to stay healthy. Given such a large amount, it is important to know how to properly collect birch sap, whether it can be stored.

What is useful birch sap for the body

Birch sap contains many vitamins and minerals. It is rich in calcium, magnesium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, sodium, silicon - and this is only part of the list. After winter, this juice becomes very relevant for restoring strength and raising immunity. Drinking a glass of juice every day for thirty days, you will protect yourself from viral and bacterial infections, as well as get a boost of energy - nothing can overshadow the spring mood.

Few people know that birch sap is capable of skin: normalize sebum secretion, reduce age spots and even treat acne. And if you wipe your face skin daily with this drink, it will always have a fresh and well-groomed appearance.

The benefits of birch sap for pregnant women are also undeniable. These are not only the vitamins listed above, but also a large amount of glucose and fructose in the composition of the drink. Birch sap helps those who suffer from toxicosis - it quickly restores water balance, compensates for the deficiency of vitamins and trace elements necessary for the development of the fetus and the health of the expectant mother.

How and when to collect birch sap

The collection of birch sap begins in early spring (from mid-March to mid-April) - the buds should swell, but not begin to bloom. Best time for collection: the interval between 12:00 and 18:00 hours.

It is better to choose an older tree, with a trunk thickness of 20 cm or more. Up to 7 liters can be obtained per day from a large tree valuable product, from a young birch - much less. In addition, a young tree is easy to damage and ruin, and its juice is not so tasty.

Holes for the flow of juice must be made with a drill or a nail (about 5-10 mm), so the cuts on the birch will grow faster. The fewer these holes, the better. Collect no more than a liter of juice from one tree so that it can heal its “wounds” faster.

Having carefully made a hole, attach a semicircular device to the birch bark with a thick wire, through which the juice can flow into a bag, bottle or other prepared vessel.

At the end of the collection of juice, the hole must be covered or plugged with clay or moss.

How to store birch sap at home

The collected juice fresh can be stored in the refrigerator for about 2 days, but it is better to drink it immediately after collection. The juice can be frozen if desired. If you want to keep it for the whole year, conservation is required: for each liter of birch sap, 70-100 g of sugar and 3-6 g citric acid. All ingredients are mixed in a saucepan, heated (without boiling). After dissolving sugar hot juice bottled in sterilized jars.

Just imagine how pleasant it will be to feel the taste of spring in deep winter, savoring a glass of precious birch drink!

Our ancestors did not know anything about the composition of birch sap, about all these reserves of potassium and magnesium, sodium and iron, copper, manganese, calcium and fructose, sucrose and glucose, which this spring gift of birches is so rich in.

But they knew perfectly well the time for collecting birch sap and that birch tree would help with chronic coughs, with female and male ailments, with diseases of the throat and stomach, with long-lasting rotting wounds. They also knew that birch sap would return the fading youth, making the skin smooth and radiant, hair strong and thick, and joints flexible and strong again. After reading our article, you can easily determine when birch sap can be collected.

No wonder the month "March" in the Slavic languages sounds like "birch", something between "birch" and "protect".

Birch is really a tree-amulet for the Slavs, perhaps precisely because of the properties of its juice, which was customary to collect as soon as the snow begins to melt and tender birch trees begin to “cry”, taking away with their “tears” all the bitterness and cold of long winter disappointments.

Dates when you can collect birch sap

Each region has its own time frame for birch sap: for the south - from mid-March to early April, for the north - from April to May.

It is necessary to determine when birch sap is collected by melting snow and birch buds: as soon as the buds swell and increase in size, it’s time to go from the yard to the “birch hunt”.

It is important not to miss the time when the collection of birch sap begins.

Let's go into the forest and at the nearest white-barrel (no less than a hand thick!) Let's make a shallow puncture with an awl to the place where the bark converges with the wood. It is easy to determine this place, you need to “listen” to the tree. The bark in its density differs from the body of the tree, therefore, as soon as you feel the difference in the passage of the awl through the tissues of the tree, stop! Otherwise, you can inflict a poorly healing wound on a birch, and you didn’t plan to destroy the tree, you just came to find out: when to collect birch sap this year.

If it’s time, then after 5-10 seconds, a transparent, heavy drop of the life-giving juice of the tree that has moved up the trunk from the roots is formed at the puncture site. This will be the signal when you need to collect birch sap.

Now you need to choose trees suitable for harvesting and not miss the deadlines, because the juice is only a week and a half, and you need to stock up to the maximum! As soon as the leaves have blossomed on the birch tree, the collection of juice should be stopped.

I hope now it is clear when you need to collect birch sap.

Important! The further the chosen birch grows from megacities and carriageways, the better! Trees are able to absorb exhaust gases and other harmful products the life of large cities, which he willingly "shares" through his juice.

Trees live in the sun, so the sap flows best from 10 am to 5-6 pm. Keep this in mind when setting up your juice traps.

Which birch to choose

In order not to make a mistake with the choice, a few tips from the "experienced":

Estimate by eye the diameter of the circumference of the birch trunk at the chest level of an adult: it should be at least 25-30 cm.
According to the circumference diameter, calculate the number of holes that you can make in the tree trunk: from 25-30 cm - only one, from 30-40 cm - 2-3 is acceptable, from 40 cm - 4 can be, and so on.
If more than one hole is made, then the distance between them must be at least 20 cm.
Only mature, strong trees with a well-developed root system and a rich crown are suitable for "birch hunting". Choose a tree according to these parameters, growing slightly at an angle.
It is best to make holes on the south side.
The tree should not be sick or damaged: with your actions, you can destroy the birch by weakening it.
If you found only an old birch stump after cutting down, check if the “smoking room” is alive. If - yes, then it is quite possible to arrange the collection of juice from it.
A young thin tree cannot be used to collect spring juice!
It is also undesirable to “milk” a birch tree standing alone on the edge.

Advice! If the amount of juice secreted by a birch ceased to suit you, do not rush to twist new holes, go to another tree that grows in the depths of the forest and begins to wake up - in the depths the forest has just begun to warm up.

How to collect birch sap "the old fashioned way"

Collecting birch sap was traditionally considered a matter of women and children, men treated this matter rather as fun, but they shared these trips into the forest with pleasure, helping women drive thin pegs into strong trunks, through which weakly sweet juice of those who woke up from sleep flowed trees. This method is still used today, it is very simple and accessible to everyone.

What you need

Birch tuesok, which in our time is easily replaced by a glass jar or plastic container.
Pegs pointed on both sides, 15-20 cm long, along which the juice will flow.
A bunch of last year's grass, washed and dried, twisted into a bundle.
A few ropes for attaching the jar next to the peg.
A knife or other object that can be easily and painlessly for a tree to open a thick upper layer bark.

How to collect birch sap

We choose a suitable birch and check it for sap flow;
We outline an approximate place for the hole (40-50 cm from the roots up);
If the tree has a thick, old bark, then carefully remove the upper old layer with a knife, trying not to damage the young one following it (a square of about 2x2 cm);
With a manual gimlet or screwdriver, we make a hole in the center of the cleaned square to the pulp (the soft inner layer of the tree bark, located directly above the sapwood). We make the hole at an angle so that the peg inserted into it is located in it with the “nose” down;
We drive a peg into the resulting hole;
When birch sap appears, we substitute our jar under the “nose” of the peg;
We fasten the jar with ropes captured from the house to the birch trunk;
We mask our "trap" from curious and other lovers of freebies;
We come to empty our trap twice or thrice a day.

How to collect birch sap using a herbal tourniquet

The second method of collecting juice "in the old fashioned way" differs only in that instead of a peg, a herbal tourniquet is inserted into the hole made, which is easier to make with a screwdriver, which will act as a wick for life-giving moisture to enter the jar. When birch sap is extracted in this way, the ants who find your “trap” will be incredibly happy, and you run the risk of bringing home a jar of juice fairly mixed with these forest dwellers.

Important! From one tree you can collect no more than 1-3 liters, depending on its age and condition! The tree also needs this juice to live! Withdrawal more birch trees will be difficult to restore.

In short, do not be like greedy vandals, it is better to find 5-6 more trees in advance, from which you can collect juice without damaging the forest.

How to collect birch sap in jars

The youth of our parents came at a time when heels of boiled potatoes and fat wrapped in a rag were replaced by tin cans with all sorts of delicious things. The same jars turned out to be in great demand when collecting birch sap!

How to use banks

The lid from the jar was cut off completely, folded in the previous way, and any suitable container. If the neck of the container was narrow, then an ordinary household funnel was inserted into it, which significantly increased the amount of collection.

Somewhere at the same time appeared special devices, having the form of a hollow iron or aluminum tube with a “nose” at one end and a pointed edge at the other of different cross-sectional diameters. The pointed edge, of course, was driven into the tree, and the juice dripped from the “spout” into the jar fixed under it. These "collections" are used to this day, they are really very convenient.

Advice! In order not to inflict serious injury on the birch, the cross-sectional diameter of such devices should not exceed 5-6 mm, and after collecting the juice, the “adapt” must be removed from the tree trunk.

Plastic devices for collecting birch sap

With the spread of various plastic items in everyday life, the collection of juice went faster.

Firstly, plastic container has virtually no weight.
Secondly, it does not break with careless handling and does not leak.
Third, plastic packaging can be enough large sizes and you don't have to run to the birch every 2-3 hours.
Fourth, it usually has a twisting plastic cover, in which it is easy to make a hole for a tube with flowing juice, which eliminates its loss and the ingress of forest debris or insects into the container.
Fifthly, the tube itself is also made of plastic (cambric from an electrical wire, a cocktail tube or a medical dropper).
Sixth, the device is easy to assemble, dismantle without problems and do not deform.

Collecting birch sap with a drip

Having found the desired birch, we pierce the bark of the tree with a wide dropper needle. Basically, the juice goes between the bark and the wood, so the length of the dropper needle will be quite enough.
We stick the other end of the dropper into the plastic lid of the jar or bottle.
After making sure that the juice has gone, we fix the container between the birch roots, and if the bottle is small, then we simply tape it to the trunk (again - plastic!).

How to get birch sap with minimal effort

Approximately according to the same principle, a cambric with a cocktail tube “works”.

True, here you have to work hard and first drive a nail into a tree or a thick nail to a depth of 3-5 cm, with a downward slope, making a hole of the desired diameter, and then also pull it out of there. Or use a manual brace with a drill diameter that matches the diameter of the plastic tube. As a rule, this diameter does not exceed 1 cm.

Important! Remember the allowable distance between the holes (20 cm) and do not arrange “multi-station pumping” on the tree, trying to put as many tubes as possible into one bottle, making holes in the bark 2-3 cm apart!

In our “advanced” times, instead of a nail and a hand brace, a cordless hand drill is successfully used, which makes the process of collecting birch sap much more prosaic and easily accessible.

All of the above methods make it clear how to properly extract birch sap without applying great harm birch itself.

The method that gives the largest amount of birch sap

There is such a way, but it is unacceptable for a normal person, because this way makes a tree hurt for a long time, and can even destroy it.

With this method, an ordinary ax is used, with which a notch is made along the trunk of a birch. The poor white-barreled friend literally bleeds with her tears, and often she is simply not able to restore such an amount of lost juice.

People using this method liken themselves to a pig from Krylov’s fable “The Pig under the Oak”, where the pig undermines the roots of the oak tree in search of acorns, not at all caring that the oak tree, on which these same acorns grow, dies.

Advice! There is no need to approach nature from the position of a predator, this is what distinguishes us - people - from animals!

The options for collecting birch trees proposed above (except for the “clumsy”, of course) are the safest for trees, because they do not cause serious damage to them. With these methods, you can collect as much juice from several birches as your heart desires, without causing serious harm to either the birch tree itself or the forest as a whole. Above, we described in detail how to extract birch sap without causing severe harm to the tree.

Basic rules for collecting birch sap

It’s not enough not to cause serious harm, you also need to help the birch heal the wound in gratitude, which you inflicted on it anyway. It's easy to do this:

If you used the “old-fashioned” pegs, at the end of the process, they must be broken off and cleaned “flush”, covering the surface with garden pitch or resin from coniferous trees on top.

After your “birch hunt”, wounds remain on the tree trunk in any case. You need to carefully remove all your devices and drive a wooden chop or tightly packed moss into this “hole”.

Advice! Any knot or twig picked up in the forest can serve as a chopik, the main thing is that it is not rotten and cleared of bark.

And be sure to cover up! No garden pitch? Didn't find a Christmas tree in the forest? Cover with at least oil paint!

Of course, a birch tree will be able to overgrow a small place of damage without your help, but with you it will do it faster! The birch sap will quickly soak the chop-cork itself, fill the remaining space in the "hole" and cheerfully run up the trunk and branches, and the tree itself will easily tighten the wound with new wood.

If you did everything correctly, then the tree will quickly tighten the place of your impact so that, having come to the same tree on next year, you won't even be able to find the location of the previous intrusion.

We ask for mercy for next batch birch trees!

In Rus', white-barked trees have long been revered not only for their beauty, but also for their healthy juice which they are happy to share with people. Birch "tears" help strengthen the immune system, perfectly quench thirst and help get rid of many diseases. To get a truly healing nectar, you need to know how to collect birch sap, when it should be done and how to properly store the drink so that it stays healthy longer.

When is birch sap harvested?

The exact date of the appearance of sap in birch trees depends on the region of the country and the weather conditions in each particular year.

Approximately after the spring equinox, which occurs on March 20 or 21, you can go to the grove to check if the sap flow has begun in the white-barked trees. To do this, you should take with you a thin awl, with which you need to carefully pierce the birch bark. If a drop of juice appears, it means that the process has begun and you can start collecting healing birch.

Experienced collectors know that the period during which you can get the largest number juice, very short. It is necessary to have time to stock up on a healthy drink from the moment the swollen buds appear and before the leaves bloom on the trees.

In addition, the fastest juice goes in the daytime: from noon to six o'clock in the evening. But then the trees “fall asleep” and don’t give their nectar so generously.

How to collect a healthy drink without harm to the tree

Nature shares with us healing properties completely free of charge. We should appreciate gifts, taking care of fragile and vulnerable trees as much as possible.

Juice collection cannot be carried out rashly, set a single goal - to get as much as possible more drink. Care must be taken not to harm nature.

How to collect birch sap?

1. Choose a tree that is neither too young nor too old, with a trunk diameter of at least 20 cm.
2. Make a shallow hole, given that the juice goes between the bark and the trunk. Distance from the ground - 20 - 25 cm, gap depth - 3 - 5 cm.

Important! No need to use an ax, it is better to use a drill with a small diameter nozzle.

One tree does not need to make many holes. With a trunk diameter of 25 cm, only one is allowed, from 30 to 35 cm - two, from 35 to 40 - three holes, for thicker trees - a maximum of four.
In the slot made (or under it) it is necessary to place a device through which the juice can drip into the container installed below - plastic bottle, plastic bag, glass jar, canister. It can be a wooden gutter, a polyethylene tube, a dry grass tow, or other materials at hand.
No need to be lazy, you should go around more trees in order to collect one liter per day from each, and not completely dry one birch. It is unacceptable to drain all the juice, it will kill the tree. Therefore, the collection should be stopped in the evening.
Be sure to close the hole after collecting the birch. To do this, you can use moss, clay, wax, wood cork.

Maximum useful properties has fresh juice. At shock freezing it almost does not lose its healing characteristics, but conservation, concentrate preparation and sterilization are made from useful birch just sweet and delicious drink, no more.

We are lucky that we were born and live in a country where such beautiful and unique trees as birches grow.

After all, they are not only pleasing to the eye, but also have a lot of other useful properties that can do a good job, both in the household and in survival conditions. This also includes the opportunity to enjoy birch sap! That's what we're talking about today!

Birch sap is really very useful and contains such valuable vitamins as B 6 and B 12, as well as other usefulness in its composition! It is recommended to drink it for beriberi, diseases of the joints, skin and blood, for problems with the respiratory system, liver, stomach, arthritis, rheumatism, headaches and other health problems!

When to extract birch sap?

The movement of sap in birch trees begins with the very first thaws of spring, and ends when the buds open.

How much birch sap can be collected from one birch per day?

It all depends on the size of the birch and the method of extraction. On average, about 2 - 3 liters of juice can be obtained per day from one tree, if a larger tree is chosen, this indicator can grow up to 7 liters of juice, according to other sources, tens of liters can be extracted.

What tree size is best?

With any method of extraction (which will be described below), it is NOT recommended to choose young birches, this is less effective and more dangerous for the tree than if you choose a larger and more mature birch! And, of course, you should not try to extract juice from very young birches.

How to prevent the death of a birch?

To get juice, in any case, you need to make an incision or a notch on a birch, through which valuable liquid will run. Be sure to close up the hole or notches made after you stop extracting birch sap, because if this is not done, the tree may dry out. The chances of a disastrous outcome are especially high in young trees, but large ones must be treated with care. You can’t approach the extraction of juice like a barbarian, here you need to be careful and caring! Wounds inflicted on a tree should be repaired with garden pitch, wax, a specially carved peg, and other means.

Methods for extracting birch sap.

What is the most correct way to extract birch sap? In this matter, we will not make any specific statements and will only express our general opinion. It is worth choosing the most humane way of extraction and at the same time it should provide you enough juice. It is important to find the right balance between the amount of juice and the health of the plant, which you need to think about in the first place already at the stage of preparation for harvesting.

A justified exception can only be a situation in which you are far from the benefits of civilizations and are fighting for own life. In survival conditions, you may need to urgently remove thirst or get rid of scurvy. In this case, it is necessary to use the tools and means that are at hand, because if you do not do this, you will die. In this case, the rate of extraction of a valuable drink will be in the first place. If you have enough time left to prepare as much juice as you need, then you need to choose a more humane method, at the same time taking care of disguise (the presence of icicles on a birch trunk in frost is striking).

Methods for extracting sap from birch trees:

1. We will need a hand gimlet, drill or screwdriver to make a hole in a birch. You need to do it at a slight slope upwards and from the warmer south side. After that (here the actions differ) either a groove of a suitable size is inserted (carved from hardwood, for example, from a NOT dried buckthorn, in which the inside is simply perfectly removed and a neat groove is formed) and a vessel is substituted (tied) under the groove ( jar, plastic bottle, plastic bag).

Instead of a groove made of wood, grooves and tubes made of other materials are used (yes, even an ordinary cocktail tube, or special metal grooves prepared in advance), which fit so tightly that the juice flows through the hole, and not along the walls outside. There is another option when, in order to prevent spilling of juice, first they make a small hole with a knife under the groove, which is driven in quite tightly, and already above it, a little higher, they make a deep hole with a gimlet, so that the juice from above flows exactly onto the groove, you can make a small channel in the bark .

An alternative to a gimlet can be, for example, a nail (as shown in the following video), the essence of the process does not change: you need to make a hole, and, using a properly fitted outlet, deliver the juice to the vessel.

Another way is using droppers and a screwdriver.

2. The method is less humane and comes down to various kinds of notches and cuts at certain angles, which feed liquid into the vessel through the juice outlets.

And here is how things are with the extraction of juice in fraternal Belarus (in the video of 2014, it is stated that up to 30 liters of juice per day can be collected from a birch! And this is the official way! However, its humanity is still in great doubt).

3. There is a slightly different way, I myself have not tried it, but for clarity, the video is attached. The plus is that as a tool we only need a knife, well, a vessel and a birch itself will give us a gutter. You just need to bend (with a knife) the bark in the form of a triangle, and a little higher above it poke a birch with a knife a couple of times, while the juice will flow directly along the “triangle”. It's obvious that this method has a minus and is not completely protected from insects, if only some improvements are made with closing the collection area, gauze or branches of coniferous trees.

Of course, there are certainly other ways, with their own own nuances and technology, what method do you use?

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You must have just tried this drink, but never collected it on their own. To correct this situation, we decided to tell you in detail about how to properly extract birch sap.

General information about the drink

Before telling you about how birch sap is collected, I would like to tell you what this drink is.

Birch sap is a liquid that flows from broken and cut birch branches and trunks, which occurs as a result of root pressure.

Surely everyone knows that birch tree (the second name of the drink we are considering) is a very valuable and nutritional product. This is due to the fact that it has a beneficial effect on the entire human body.

The composition of the drink and useful properties

In spring, sweet birch sap is extracted due to the fact that it is very rich in vitamins and minerals. Experts say that this drink includes the following substances: various sugars, phosphorus, potassium, zirconium, sodium, nickel, calcium, barium, magnesium, strontium, aluminum, copper, manganese, titanium, iron and silicon. Scientists also found traces of nitrogen in it.

Drinking the drink helps cleanse the blood, break down kidney stones and bladder, enhancing metabolism. It also removes toxins and other harmful substances from the body.

Among other things, it is useful to drink birch sap for liver diseases, stomach ulcers, gallbladder pathologies, low acidity, rheumatism, scurvy, sciatica, arthritis, headaches, tuberculosis, and even sexually transmitted diseases.

When to collect birch sap?

Sap production from birch begins in early spring, with the first thaws. This period continues until the buds open. However, it should be noted that exact time juice release is quite difficult to establish, since it is completely dependent on weather conditions. Although most collectors claim that "birch tears" begin to run as early as mid-March.

To independently determine the beginning of the sap flow period, you just need to come to the forest and prick a birch with a thin awl. If after this action droplets of life-giving moisture appear from the hole, then you can safely proceed to its collection and further harvesting.

In our country, maple sap is very rarely extracted. And its volume is quite difficult to compare with birch. This is due to the fact that sugar maple grows only in North America, while other species are not so fast-growing as to produce a large amount of life-giving drink.

In the northeastern United States and also in the southeastern Canada maple sap used very widely. As a rule, it is used to obtain a sweet syrup, which is often consumed with pancakes and added to various confectionery products.

Summing up

In this article, we answered in detail the question of how to make birch sap tasty and store it. long time, and also discussed how it should be mined without harming the trees. Thanks to these tips, you will definitely get a very tasty and healthy drink that will quench your thirst well and saturate your body. minerals and organic acids. Do not forget to only "treat" the slender beauty and treat the wound so that the tree does not die.