How to prepare a birch broom. Birch juice

A birch broom in a bath has a positive effect on the entire body as a whole. Due to the porosity of the leaf, the birch broom adheres well to the body, and this sticking effect has a truly healing effect.

Tightly adhering to the body, a birch leaf draws out toxins from the body, contributes to a more intensive cleansing. It has a healing effect on the kidneys, helps with pain in muscles and joints, promotes relaxation after intense physical exertion.

Essential oils contained in birch leaves perfectly cleanse the skin, nourish it and prevent aging. A birch broom is also indispensable for colds. Under the influence of essential oils, the bronchi expand perfectly, the respiratory system is cleansed, sputum is removed, ventilation of the lungs improves. In addition, birch leaves are small and soft, easily glide over the body during soaring and are therefore suitable for almost everyone.

Preparation of a birch broom

A birch broom is harvested at the beginning of summer, when there are no earrings yet, and the tree contains the greatest amount of useful substances and essential oils. Usually for birch this is the end of June - the middle of July.

It is best to collect branches for a birch broom away from industrial enterprises, city dumps, roadways, on sunny forest edges. Harvesting is carried out in dry weather, in the morning, after the dew has disappeared. The best broom is made from weeping and curly birch, especially from those that grow near ponds and reservoirs.

Choose branches preferably lateral and those that grow closer to the ground. With two or three forks, with a small or medium leaf, then the broom will be more flexible, thicker, and the leaf will last a long time and will not crumble. Only dry leaves are cut off - wet leaves will fly around and darken when dried. Try to cut several branches from different trees, no need to destroy the whole tree!

Connoisseurs determine the suitability of a tree for brooms in this way: you need to lick your tongue or run your fingertips along the surface of a birch leaf, and if it is rough, then the branches of this tree are not suitable for a broom. And if the leaves are tender and smooth, they will make an excellent broom. Another way: you need to pull the sheet, if only a piece came off, then the birch is suitable for blanks.

The finished broom should smell like balsamic birch oil, and its leaves should be a rich matte green color.
In order for a birch broom to retain the maximum amount of active healing properties, it must be properly dried.

How to tie a birch broom for a bath

Birch branches are tied with twine. For dressing, it is better to use a marine knot that does not untie, but if necessary, you can tighten it more strongly at any time.

If you tightly tie fresh branches, such a broom will have no smell, since the leaves in the middle will “burn out” when dried. Therefore, cut blanks are tied into weak bundles. Thicker and longer branches are placed inside - they form the base, and around them - shorter and thinner ones, bending inward.

The folded branches are tied up closer to the handle, then the broom is divided in half and the resulting halves are twisted. You should get a voluminous, spherical shape. The lower part of the branches is freed from leaves about 15-20 centimeters for the handle. Sticking branches are chopped off with an ax. The size of the broom and the number of branches in it are arbitrary, but we must remember that in the steamed form the broom will become almost twice as heavy as in the dry one.

The blanks are dried in pairs connected in a darkened, well-ventilated room. After a week, when the brooms are a little dry, they can be pulled tighter. You can also dry the blanks on the floor, but in this case you will have to turn them over every day so as not to rot.

A dried birch broom is kept hanging or neatly folded in the attic, in a haystack or in any cool room. There are enough blanks to make so that they are enough until next summer.

How to steam a birch broom

Dip the broom for 2-3 minutes in a basin of cold water, then for the same time in a basin of warm water and, finally, in a basin of hot water, but not boiling water. In this case, the pelvis can be covered so that the broom is steamed. After such steaming, the broom will exude a delicious aroma. Water from steaming can be poured over hot stones for aroma.
Birch broom can be used 1-2 times.

Good afternoon, dear readers!

In March, birch sap is harvested. Today I will share how I prepare homemade birch sap. Now is the sap flow, and this valuable product is being harvested. Birch sap is a wonderful cleanser, it is recommended to drink it to remove salts and excess fluid.

Birch contains many vitamins and minerals. It is useful for coughs, sore throats, diseases of the joints, liver, kidneys. Birch sap is very useful after operations and during the recovery period, it improves metabolism. Yes, and it will benefit a healthy body. After all, these are the first spring gifts of Mother Nature. Birch sap will wash your body like a spring rain.

In the Western media, there has recently been information about the benefits of birch sap. It's the hit of the season there. We have fresh juice can be purchased in forestries. In the spring, they harvest and sell to the public.

I have already offered one of my favorite recipes for harvesting birch sap with currant sprigs and mint. See.

Can be prepared birch sap cold. To do this, I drop 2-3 drops of lemon or orange oil or 1 cup of mint oil into a clean empty plastic bottle (1.5 or 2 liters) and pour it with clean cold juice. I screw the bottles with corks and put them in the basement or refrigerator on a barrel. You can add 5-6 raisins.

So the juice is stored for a very long time and does not peroxide. During storage, it will turn slightly sour, then it can be sweetened with honey or sugar.

Still I roll homemade birch sap with orange peels. To do this, I throw a few peels of an orange or a circle or another of a lemon into a jar (3 liters), and then pour the birch sap with sugar and citric acid, brought to a boil, and immediately roll it up.

I add sugar and citric acid to taste. 70-100 g of sugar and 0.5-1 tsp of citric acid per 3 liters. bank. Add, stir, taste. Not enough - add more than your taste. But even with a little sugar and citric acid, the juice will stand, because you bring it to a boil.

I put a little sugar and acid, because after we open the jar we like to mix birch sap with some other - apple, currant, grape, which are usually concentrated. And in a mixture with birch sap, a pleasant combination is obtained.

You can also add 1-2 drops to the orange peel, or just before rolling, instead of peels, drop 2-3 drops of orange oil directly into the juice or You don’t need much, so as not to interrupt the taste of the juice. You can also use several sprigs of thyme (thyme) or tarragon for flavoring.

For seaming, I use both ordinary tin lids and screw ones. True, they are then difficult to unscrew. Sometimes you clamp homework like this - well, you can’t unscrew it.

In this case, roll the jar lid along the edge of the table, only press the neck of the jar with the lid firmly against the table with your hand. Any tightest lid will open. If it doesn't work right away, press harder. Be sure to open!

Before that just did not do! And she put it in hot water, and knocked on the lid, and clapped on the bottom. But this method is 100% correct.

That's all for today! Bye bye!

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Harvesting birch sap consists of several stages, each of which is worth talking about in more detail:

1. collection of birch sap
2. its use in fresh form for medicinal purposes
3. storage of birch sap during consumption

When can you collect birch sap

Collection time depends on the region. Somewhere earlier: in March, and in the snowy regions of Russia: in April. The spring equinoxion comes on March 19-21, from now on you can already try to test the beginning of sap flow: make a small puncture with an awl (so as not to damage the tree) and, if a drop forms, then the juice has gone, so it's time to put jars.

You need to determine when you can collect birch sap according to the weather and its tips:

• the snow began to melt
• thawed patches appeared
• the sun is shining, endowing the trees with its warmth. In early spring, first of all, under the first rays of the sun, materials such as wood, stone, earth begin to heat up .. Just around them, the first thawed patches appear.
• sap flow begins about 20 days before the leaves open, but if the weather is windy, not sunny and cold for more than 3 days, then sap flow slows down and may completely stop until warmer days

Try not to be late, because by the end of April the sap flow will almost stop and it will be useless to cut the bark and put containers: you won’t collect much juice.

How to collect birch sap

How to collect birch sap correctly so as not to harm the tree

It is necessary to collect birch sap correctly in order not to damage nature in general and, in particular, those birches that you decide to “cut”.

To prevent the sap harvest from turning into a barbaric raid, prepare for this event and do it right. You will most likely return to your birch "plot" next year ...

How to collect birch sap correctly:

1. choose middle-aged and older birch trees that have enough strength to make up for the "donor" donation of "blood" and the loss of 3-5 liters of juice will not cause their death
2. drill a shallow hole just to get through the bark to the cambium layer. It will then be easier to “plug” a small hole with a wooden cork and cover it with pitch so that the tree does not expire. Yes, and the birch itself “regenerates” such a small hole so quickly that if you look for it next spring, you won’t find it.
3. just below the hole, make a very shallow cut just to secure the tray made of galvanized steel a little. This incision can also be avoided by inserting a PVC tube directly into the hole. But tubes may or may not be available. And, perhaps, through the tube, part of the juice will drip onto the ground, flowing down the outside ...
4. A one and a half or five liter plastic bottle must be tied to a birch tree so that the neck is exactly under the galvanized steel tray. For a garter, you can use a soft wire or a simple rope. You need to tie it up not only at the neck of the bottle, but also at the level of its middle so that the wind does not blow it away.
5. check the fastening of the bottle and its resistance to wind

The second option, when a PVC tube is inserted into the hole, is more gentle and most preferable. So that the juice does not run in addition to the tube, you just need to first pick up the tube, and only then drill a hole along the diameter of the tube, which is easiest to do with an ordinary brace (hand drill).

A PVC tube is inserted into the drilled hole.

If during the day less than a glass has dripped, then remove everything and close up the hole. If the birch does not give juice, then it means that it has some problems and it is better to leave it alone.

It is not recommended to take a lot of juice from one tree. A birch, like people who donate blood, has its own norm that is safe for health. See for yourself the dimensions and age of a birch: the younger it is, the less strong it has.

Juice from the bottle must be drained in the morning and evening:

• to drink it fresh. As they say, you can’t put it on the table, none of the household will remember that it is so useful and happens only once a year
• so as not to have time to pick up garbage: pieces of bark and any forest midges
• so as not to sour right in the bottle

How to drink birch sap

Drinking birch sap is useful only fresh, right from under the "cow". The benefits are huge, because birch sap is the life force of such a large living creature as a TREE!

Of course, the maximum benefit will be when the juice is drunk 30 minutes before a meal and an hour after a meal.

Before meals, drink in the same way as any healthy drink or herbal infusion for medicinal purposes. Between meals, you can drink birch sap instead of ordinary water, which you drink in order to replenish the water balance in the body (1.5-2 liters per day).

It is advisable to drink 3-4 glasses per day, that is, 1 liter.

birch sap storage

Storage of birch sap at room temperature is not recommended for more than 3 days, because it begins to turn sour, ferment. Best of all, it will be more useful to drink more of it fresh, taken just from a birch.

But, if you do not have time to use too large a “harvest”, then you can add birch sap when preparing dishes such as cereals and kissels.

In the refrigerator, birch sap can easily stand for two or three weeks, but this is a perishable product that loses its healing properties with every overdue day. Therefore, it is not subject to long-term storage.

Although ..., last year, it turned out that they put the bottle in the window sill refrigerator in the kitchen (they brought it for their daughter) and ... forgot. We discovered it a month later. It has already turned out (somehow on its own) sour kvass. You can drink it if you add sugar. But birch kvass with sugar or raisins, recipes for which can be found on the Internet, you need to beware of drinking for those who are overweight, have a border in blood sugar or diabetes, and also who have a duodenal ulcer 12 guts, because kvass is too sour (as it happened with us) or yeast, as recommended in some Internet recipes.

Harvesting of birch sap should be carried out in due time and in the amount that you can consume fresh, depending on the number of family members. You should not harvest it out of greed in large quantities: the surplus will deteriorate and it will be a pity if you have to pour out such valuable raw materials.

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How to prepare birch sap for the winter

Many people love birch sap or apiary, but someone buys it ready-made, and someone has a tradition to harvest birch sap in early spring.

This is a rather peculiar drink, loved by many, a source of a large amount of vitamins and minerals.

But, unfortunately, it is available only for a month of the year. Therefore, if you want to diversify your diet at other times of the year, you can roll up birch sap for the winter according to several delicious recipes.

How to collect birch sap

Harvesting birch sap for the winter takes place in early spring. To collect juice, you should choose trees with a diameter of 20 centimeters.

You will need tools for collecting birch sap, namely a knife (for cutting a hole) and a stainless steel groove. After you have made an incision in the tree, insert a pre-prepared stainless steel groove into it.

The most intense juice flows until 6 pm. After you have collected all the juice, close up the hole carefully. If this is not done, bacteria will get under the bark of the tree and the tree will quickly begin to wither.

You can close up the hole with garden pitch, moss, plasticine, wax or something else. The main thing - in no case do not leave holes open.

You can collect more juice from birch stumps. There is an unlimited amount of it. As soon as leaves begin to appear on the birch, the movement of the juice stops.

Traditionally, the juice is drunk immediately after collection, until it has lost its freshness and maximum benefits.

Within 2-3 days, birch sap can be stored in the refrigerator or in the cellar, during which time it will not deteriorate. But then it will inevitably turn sour and ferment. But if the temperature is close to freezing, then the juice will stand for about a month.

However, people who have known about the healing properties of birch sap since time immemorial have learned to store it in winter as well. Many of the recipes for harvesting birch sap by canning are still used today.

How to preserve birch sap for the winter

A simple recipe for seaming birch sap

Rolling birch sap is not difficult, especially for those who are familiar with the basics of home canning and have some hands-on experience.

The easiest way is to pour raw materials into an enameled pan, heat to a temperature of 80-90 degrees and seal in jars. The container must be prepared in advance, cleanly washed and sterilized. Rolled cans of birch sap are covered with a dense cloth and left to cool completely.

This is how canned birch sap is obtained, natural, without additives. It is better to store it in a cool place.

How to close birch sap with sugar

This is the easiest way to preserve the beneficial properties of birch sap for a long time. Clean jars are taken, the lids are sterilized for them, the juice itself is brought to a boil, 2 tablespoons are added. sugar per liter of juice and citric acid at the tip of a spoon (it can be replaced with half a peeled lemon), poured into jars that roll up with lids. You can not boil the juice, but warm it up a little, pour it into jars and put it in a deep saucepan to sterilize for 10 minutes. Citric acid is required in the recipe, as it is a natural preservative.

How to put birch sap on yeast

You can use another way to harvest birch sap: take 20 g of yeast for each liter of sap. Pour the juice into a saucepan, heat, dilute the yeast. Expose the juice for 4 days in a cold place. Then pour it into sterile jars, roll up.

Delicious birch sap for the winter

The recipe for a drink with a richer taste, like in a store, is done a little differently. For a 3-liter jar of juice, you will need 0.5 cups of sugar and 1 tsp. citric acid. Preservation of birch sap with the addition of the listed ingredients is boiled and then rolled into sterilized jars. The resulting product is stored without problems in the conditions of the apartment.

Birch sap for the winter with orange conservation

• sugar - 2 tbsp. spoons per liter of juice
• citric acid - on the tip of a knife
• 3-4 cups of orange or lemon per 3-liter jar

How to roll up birch sap for the winter:

Cut a lemon or orange into thin slices, put in a container, pour birch sap, send citric acid and sugar there. Bring the juice to a boil, pour into clean jars.

Put a slice of lemon in each jar, roll up quickly. Leave to cool, then store.

How to prepare birch sap for the winter in the form of syrup

Another way to preserve birch sap is to make syrup from it. This option is not very common in our latitudes; Americans most often cook it, along with maple.

The syrup is prepared by evaporation. To do this, you need dishes with a wide flat bottom - a saucepan or a basin. Birch sap is poured there and boiled over low heat. When the volume of liquid decreases three times, fresh juice is added. This procedure must be repeated 2-3 times. In the process, the foam is necessarily removed and removed.

Important: no sugar added! Ready syrup is filtered through double gauze, bottled. Birch sap can be stored in a cool place throughout the year.

Without sterilization and rolling for the winter, there is another simple way to harvest birch sap. Kvass is made from it, which is obtained by fermentation in bottles, in which 2 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar per 1 liter and a small handful of raisins. Juice ferments rather slowly, because such a drink is stored until mid-summer.

The second way. Strain fresh juice through gauze, then pour into pre-sterilized glass bottles, close tightly with lids and expose to the cold. Watch carefully that there was no mold, otherwise this juice will be unusable. After a couple of days, the juice will noticeably become cloudy and begin to ferment. Fermentation lasts no more than two weeks. As a result, you get a natural drink that tastes very similar to kvass. It should be put in a cold place. You can save no more than a year.

From harvesting birch sap in winter, you can also make kvass. To do this, add a little yeast (50 g per 10 liters of juice), sugar and raisins. Put all this in a warm place, and after the juice begins to foam and hiss, pour the resulting mixture into jars (plastic bottles are possible) and put in a dark, cold place (better cellar).

Birch sap with dried fruits

You can also diversify preparations with dried fruits. You can also use dry rose hips. For a 3-liter jar of birch sap, you will need a handful of dried fruits and ¾ cup of sugar. Everything is boiled together for 5-10 minutes and then rolled into prepared containers.

Another extraordinary version of a drink made from birch sap is obtained by adding ordinary candies to it. For example, barberry, duchesse, mint.

For 3 liters of juice you will need a couple of sweets (preferably one kind), ¾ cup of sugar, a little citric acid.

True fans of birch sap can try to make such a drink. For 5 liters of birch sap, you need to take 1 liter of port wine, 2 lemons and 1.6 kg of sugar.

We cut the washed lemons, together with the zest, into pieces. We remove the bones. Pour port wine, juice into a saucepan (barrel), add lemons and sugar. We close the dish with a lid and take it out to the cold.

After 2 months, we bottle the birch and cork them well. Harvesting birch sap and storage Those who do not make birch for the first time are advised to attach corks to bottles with wire so that they do not fly off. Bottles are stored lying down in the cold (in the cellar). You can drink birch tree four weeks after bottling.

If you like natural vinegar, you can try to make it from birch sap. It will take 2 liters of juice, 40 grams of honey and 100 grams of vodka.

We mix all the products in a saucepan or a barrel. We cover the container with gauze and put it in heat. After 2-3 months, the vinegar will be ready. It must be bottled and sent for storage in a cold place.

And the most useful way to preserve all the beneficial properties of birch sap until winter is freezing. The difficulty lies only in the fact that it is difficult to save large volumes of raw materials by this method. Otherwise, you can pour the juice and freeze it both in plastic bottles and in containers.

The taste qualities of the juice are preserved in full. It is advisable to freeze the juice immediately after collecting it, because the faster you prepare it, the more vitamins it retains. Sugar and citric acid are not needed in this case. At minimum temperatures in the freezer, juice can be stored up to six months. Juice is not subject to repeated freezing, after defrosting it is necessary to use it immediately.

How to make strawberry juice without sugar

More information

How to collect birch sap? This question worries many summer residents who have not previously encountered the independent production of this drink. In addition to its excellent taste, a drink obtained from birch is the most effective remedy for mild colds and beriberi, and it also quenches thirst perfectly. In order to get enough to drink, and even to make reserves, the extraction of birch sap should occur during the period of active release of liquid. Usually, harvesting begins in April, during the swelling of the buds on the tree. The most optimal time to collect birch sap with your own hands is the period from 12 to 18 hours, since the release of liquid during this period occurs with the greatest intensity.

Location selection

The place where birch sap can be collected must be carefully determined. You should not consider trees growing near highways, industrial complexes and other sources of environmental pollution, since they absorb all the harmful substances that enter the atmosphere, and a drink from them will not have beneficial properties. It is best to look for birch groves located in places as far away from civilization as possible. The place is chosen, and it remains only to remember how to collect birch sap without damaging the trees.

After a suitable birch grove is found, you need to prepare a tool and devices for extracting a healthy drink. You will need: a screwdriver (electric drill) with a drill, a dropper or a vinyl tube and a container. If there are no tools listed first, then you can use a hammer and a metal tube matched to the diameter of the dropper, or a brace. How to properly extract juice so as not to damage the tree?

In order not to damage the birch in the process, you need to follow some simple rules:

1. You can only use an adult birch with a diameter of more than 20 cm. Young trees after harvesting may not survive, since during this period they need strength to grow and develop.
2. In the process of collecting juice, you need to use only the specified tool, since using an ax will damage the tree.
3. Do not drill too deep holes, 2-3 cm deep into the tree is enough.
4. No more than 1 liter of liquid can be collected from each tree. If the amount of juice collected is greater, then it is easy to cause irreparable harm to the plant.
5. Do not drill many holes in one tree. For example, if the diameter of a birch is 20 cm, then it is allowed to make 1 hole in it. In the case when the trunk diameter has reached 30 cm, 2 holes can be made in it.
6. When you have finished collecting liquid, be sure to close the hole in the tree with moss or wax.

At a distance of 20 cm from the ground, we drill a hole to a depth of 20-30 mm and firmly insert the dropper, previously cut at an angle of 45 °. Many use gauze for collection, through which the liquid flows into a container. In the process of such collection, dust, bark from a tree and other debris enter the container, which then has to be filtered. And birch sap, collected with a dropper, does not need to be cleaned, since the liquid from the tree directly enters the container.

For one day of work in a birch grove, you can get up to 20 liters of a delicious drink. After the end of the process, it is necessary to close the hole in the tree. In addition to the aforementioned methods of plugging a hole in a birch, you can use a dry branch of a suitable diameter, which must be cut into a cone and carefully hammered into the hole with a hammer. Over time, the cork will swell and the birch will not suffer in any way after you collect the right amount of liquid.