Pure white stumps covered the hills of the once secret place like mushrooms. The grass withered and burned in the sun, exposing the roots of tired Birches. The birds disappeared, the silence was deafening, pressing on the eardrums.
A hot tear ran down the stranger's cheek. The dream of seeing this magical place is forever buried under the dirty track of a timber truck.
Taking a deep breath, the traveler decided to stop here for a while. You need to think about your future path. Having settled down at one of the stumps, the stranger plunged into a light slumber.
The traveler dreamed of a birch grove: green hills, fresh birch sap, birds and forest animals, a light haze of morning fog and the rotten aroma of birch brooms.
Continued at the end of the article.
Birch juice
Birch juice- a real gift of nature to man. After a long winter, until the greenery has blossomed, a person especially needs vitamins and microelements. How to collect birch sap correctly so as not to harm the tree too much?
Let's begin with Birch juice useful for humans, especially in early spring, when the body lacks vitamins. Birch sap has its own special sweetish taste, and it is better to drink it fresh.
What is useful birch sap?
in birch sap contains about a dozen organic acids, tannins, enzymes, phytoncides, numerous vitamins (C, A, group B, etc.), minerals (iron, potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, manganese, etc.), etc.
Birch juice- tonic, tonic. It helps relieve chronic fatigue, lethargy, drowsiness and improves immunity.
Birch juice normalizes the microflora in the stomach and improves digestion. Excessive acidity will be removed, lack - will add.
Birch juice has the ability to dissolve urinary stones of phosphate and carbonate origin in the kidneys and liver.
Birch juice useful as a prophylactic tonic and for the treatment of lung disease.
washing your face birch sap reduce age spots on the face and acne. It is very useful to wipe your face with a piece of frozen birch sap in the morning. The skin not only receives thermal stimulation, but also microelements that nourish it.
When is birch sap harvested?
Birch sap begins to move up the trunk usually after the spring equinox (Maslenitsa) on March 21 / Birch until mid-April / Pollen, when the Birch is dressed with the first foliage.
Reliable scientific data on the beneficial properties of birch sap today either do not exist at all, or they are hidden away from human eyes. Self-extraction of juice is treated as a crime, and if you ask a person about what birch sap is, then the first thing he will remember will be a sweet and sour liquid “packed” in a glass jar or tetrapack.
Of course, later, perhaps, someone will remember the trees with black and white bark, but that will be later. And this is somewhat disturbing.
On the other hand, today is the time when a person learns about natural food not in the forest, in a clearing or near a river, but in a store, studying the colorful labels of semi-finished products.
Well, what kind of health can we talk about here ...
However, we have strongly deviated from the main topic of the article. After all, our main task is to find out what birch sap is, how it can be useful to us, how to prepare it and whether it is worth storing it for a long time.
Let's get started...
The benefits and harms of birch sap
Birch sap is a tree elixir of life that nourishes the birch throughout its existence.
This definition is far from scientific or at least generally accepted, but we believe that it reflects the essence of birch sap, its main purpose and value. At the same time, despite such a clearly defined biological role of birch sap, it is able to nourish not only the tree, but also the human body. And with no less efficiency.
At first glance, birch sap is very similar to water, but it is not water at all. And the point here is not at all in the sweet taste, which is a kind of "calling card" of birch sap. In fact, the two liquids have different chemical compositions.
The maximum that water is capable of is saturation with minerals. Birch sap, in turn, contains minerals, vitamins, enzymes, phytoncides, fructose, tannins, organic acids, essential oils and, most likely, much more. Because even in our advanced age, not everything is visible through a microscope.
Thanks to such a rich composition, birch sap benefits everyone who is able to drink it. And this, not a lot, not a little - almost the entire population of our vast planet. The only exceptions are two categories of people:
- those who were not lucky enough to “get their hands on” an allergy to birch catkin pollen
- healthy children under the age of six months who have the opportunity to feed on their mother's breast milk (no one will give birch sap to sick children at this age, but hypothetically it can help them too)
For everyone else, birch sap will be a good help in life, as it improves metabolic processes in the body, and with regular use it can quickly remove a huge amount of toxins from the gastrointestinal tract and human blood.
In addition, all kinds of inorganic deposits (salts, trans fats, etc.), which are waiting in the wings in the joints, internal organs, connective tissue and under the skin, lend themselves to birch sap.
Such an effect on the body allows us to say with confidence that birch sap will be useful to everyone who has one or more diseases from the following list:
- sciatica, arthritis, rheumatism, gout
- stones in the kidneys, urinary and gall bladders (be sure to start with small volumes of juice and constantly monitor the size and position of the stones)
- functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, kidneys and other internal organs and systems
- cardiovascular diseases
- sore throat, cough, chronic runny nose, tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections and other diseases associated with the release of mucus and pus through the upper and lower respiratory tract
- any oncology
- any inflammatory processes in the body, and especially in the organs of the genitourinary system
- intoxication of any origin
- chronic fatigue, drowsiness and even depression
This is not a complete list of diseases and conditions in which raw fresh birch sap is indicated. However, we do not have a medical encyclopedia here, but just a small article about health. Therefore, on this conversation about the beneficial properties and diseases, we, perhaps, will finish.
We only note that fresh raw birch sap has the greatest healing cleansing power. Frozen raw juice will bring a little less benefit, and you will get very little benefit from all kinds of kvass, tinctures, industrial drinks called "Birch sap" and other products of industrial and home processing of this wonderful elixir.
How to collect birch sap
Acquaintance with the technology of self-collection of birch sap should begin with an answer to the question WHERE it can be collected. Although, of course, purely physically birch sap can be stored anywhere, including the Chernobyl "reserve". Only now only the juice that was collected away from any factories, cities, major roads (including railways) and agricultural fields can bring benefits to the body.
Only in this case will birch sap be pure (without heavy metals, radionuclides, pesticides and other harmful chemical compounds), safe and nutritious.
You can collect birch sap from the moment when the first buds swell on the birch trees, and until the first leaves appear. At the same time, in sunny glades, collection can begin a little earlier than in the depths of the forest. True, the leaves here bloom faster than in the wilderness. Therefore, start in clearings and gradually move to darker places.
To check if the juice has flowed, you can use a thin awl to pierce the bark and see if a drop of juice appears. If it appears, you can start collecting.
Trees should be selected based on the following parameters:
- trunk thickness at chest level of an adult - at least 20 cm
- developed "lush" crown
To cause minimal damage to a birch, a hole in the trunk should be made at an angle of about 45 degrees (to make it easier for the juice to drain), with a thin drill - no wider than 1 cm, no more than 3 cm deep. Curved pieces of tin, wooden and plastic can be used as a groove tubes, medical systems, etc. The main thing is that these grooves do not “enrich” the tree and the collected juice with harmful chemical elements and compounds.
Each birch that meets the above criteria is able to produce an average of 1 to 7 liters of juice. At the same time, the holes made are tightened over time, and we get less and less juice. We recommend not making the hole deeper, but simply changing the tree. Just be sure to treat the damaged area - seal the hole hermetically with garden pitch, wax or clay.
How to save birch sap (until winter, at home)
Fresh raw birch sap can be stored in a cold place for up to 2 days without compromising quality. After this time, as well as when stored warm, birch sap starts to sour very quickly. And here methods of long-term storage of birch sap come to our aid ...
The ideal way to preserve birch sap until winter is to freeze it. Moreover, the juice must be frozen quickly, then everything useful will remain in it.
If there is no freezer, then you can “roll up” birch sap into sterilized glass jars. To do this, it is heated to 80 ° C, poured into jars and rolled up with tin lids. After that, the sealed jars are kept in 85-degree water for 15 minutes and left to cool at room temperature.
You can also make birch concentrate. To do this, the juice is brought to a temperature of 60 ° C and 75% of the total volume is evaporated. The remaining 25 percent of the concentrate is poured into sterilized jars and hermetically sealed. And before use, mix such a concentrate with water.
What is prepared from birch sap?
Since the "discovery" of birch sap, people have come up with dozens of recipes for making delicious and healthy (though not always) drinks, which include all kinds of kvass, syrups, homemade wines, fruit cocktails, sweet "water" and others.
The simplest drink is obtained by mixing birch sap with fruit or vegetable juices. In any proportions - to taste.
Birch kvass is a little more difficult to prepare (one of the options):
Fresh birch sap is poured into a glass bottle, a handful of raisins (at the rate of a few pieces per liter) and sugar (2 tsp per liter) are added there. If desired, you can also throw a little lemon zest, fruits or berries into the bottle. After that, the bottle should be tightly closed and put in a cool place. In a few days, kvass will be ready, but you can open it either immediately or after 2-3 months. Will not deteriorate.
Another option is birch-bread kvass:
Pour birch sap into any clean container (preferably in an oak barrel), lower a cloth bag with rye breadcrumbs into it and close the vessel. After a few days, the juice will ferment, and you can add dill stalks, cherry leaves and oak bark to it. Then the future kvass is closed for at least 2 weeks. After that, the vessel can be opened, and kvass can be drunk.
Prepared from birch sap and medicinal drinks. Usually for these purposes, birch sap is mixed with berries and honey.
For example, here is a recipe for making a birch-lingonberry drink:
The first step is to squeeze the juice from 150 grams of lingonberries. Then put the pomace in a saucepan and pour 1 liter of fresh birch sap. Hold this "compote" for 5 minutes in a water bath and cool. Mix with previously squeezed lingonberry juice and add a little honey (or a lot if you like sweets very much). Drink according to your mood. The drink has a pronounced diuretic effect.
As we have already said, there are a great many recipes for such drinks - at least according to a recipe for a berry. And if you remember about lemons, oranges and dried fruits, then during the spring you can provide yourself with a variety of drinks for the whole year. True, before that you will have to stock up on berries and dried fruits well ...
Birch sap, or birch tree, as it is popularly called, has been famous for its healing properties since ancient times - it is an environmentally friendly, tasty, healing, refreshing soft drink. The healing secret is that in the spring the birch splashes into the leaves all the vitality that it accumulated during the winter.
When is birch sap harvested?
Birch sap is collected until the sticky leaves have blossomed (about a month before the appearance of leaves and flowering, during the period of snow melting), sap flow begins at birch trees, called “birch weeping”. Within 15-20 days, the birch gives us its sweet juice.
How to extract birch sap?
Option 1: Hole in the barrel
If you delve into the library or the Internet, looking for the rules for collecting birch sap, then general recommendations will relate to something like the following. The sap should be collected (specialists call the targeted extraction of birch sap tapping) from mature trees with a well-developed crown and a trunk of at least 30 cm in diameter. At the same time, a small hole (channels) with a diameter of up to 2 cm is drilled in the bark, depending on the diameter of the tree, from one to four holes are made on it, and a tube or tin tongue is removed from it, through which birch sap enters a dish attached to a wire or rope.
Important! At the end of the collection of birch sap, the wound is closed with a wooden cork and covered with garden pitch, wax, clay or plasticine. This is necessary in order to prevent pathogens from entering through the notch, which can cause the death of the tree.
That's just the method of collecting birch sap, which is described everywhere, we almost never used. Firstly, it is quite problematic to make the juice flow only through a tube or a tin chute, often most of it flows down the trunk. Secondly, it is not always possible to attach a bottle or jar in such a way that the drops get inside, and if this is possible, then often, when a little juice is collected in the dishes, it shifts under its weight, and the birch sap no longer gets into the neck. Thirdly, you have to make a triangular tongue of birch bark under the hole, thanks to which you can avoid the loss of juice, and traces of these actions remain for a long time, if not forever, disfiguring slender white-trunked birch trees.
Moreover, if you follow the instructions and drill a hole no larger than 2 cm, then in a couple of days the birch sap will flow much more slowly than at the beginning of the damage. And there are two ways out: either increase the hole in diameter, or make a new one. Both of them seemed undesirable to us, so this method was not popular with us. Sometimes I had to meet in the birch forest belts bottles suspended on the trunk, and above them there were several old and fresh holes or, even worse, deep notches with an axe. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the recommendations in the literature look like in practice.
Collection of birch sap. © Audrey Kletscher Helbling Option 2: Collecting birch sap from a branch
Having rejected the most inconvenient, destructive and, in our opinion, not aesthetic method, we collected birch sap in a different way. They chose a suitable branch, about a finger thick or a little more, but not extending directly from the trunk at an upward angle, but from a thicker branch or almost horizontally. Then they made an oblique cut and pushed a branch into the neck of a one and a half liter or liter bottle, depending on the intensity of sap flow. Fastening the bottle to a branch with wire was not a big pile. Sometimes suitable branches were located at a great distance from the ground, and we had to climb a tree. This made the birch sap even sweeter. However, perhaps this is due to the fact that he went a long way along the trunk and absorbed more glucose and fructose - sugars that determine the sweet taste of a healing drink.
It was also an inviolable rule that we put one bottle or, at most, two on one tree. This ensured both the stability of sap flow throughout the entire period and the limitation of injuries of some of the most “sweet” trees. The latter most often stood separately on some hillock well warmed by the sun. In some places there was still snow, and the birch trees were just beginning to move away from their winter sleep, and here the birch sap was already running in full. We tried not to touch young birch trees, but preferred mature mature trees.
It is better not to collect juice near towns and villages. Do not once again endanger the trees already exhausted by the attention of people. In addition, the sap flow here was always late, rather sluggish and short-lived. And the sap of a tree growing near a busy highway or in an industrial zone of the city, in general, instead of benefit, will only bring harm.
And yet, the amount of birch sap collection is influenced by a number of factors: latitude, type of forest, weather in summer and winter before the tapping and during the tapping period, the hours of the day, the fullness of the forest stand, the degree of tree dominance.
Collection of birch sap. © Minnesotastan The benefits of birch sap
For medicinal purposes, two types of birch are more often used - drooping and sprawling. Their buds, leaves, juice, ash (activated carbon), tar obtained by dry distillation of wood, xylitol (sugar substitute for diabetics, obtained from waste wood) - all this is widely used in medicine. Birch sap contains 0.5 - 2% sugar, it contains enzymes, organic acids, tannins, calcium, potassium, iron salts, plant hormones, glucose and substances with high antimicrobial activity (phytoncides).
Every year a person should consume at least 6 liters of birch sap. This healing drink destroys urinary stones, is effective in the treatment of stomach and liver ulcers, headaches, bronchitis, coughs, helps with rheumatism, radiculitis, arthritis. In addition, birch sap cleanses the blood, has a regenerating effect, stimulates metabolism, and is also an excellent dietary and refreshing drink. The systematic intake of birch sap has a general strengthening and tonic effect. Doctors say that if you drink at least a glass of juice a day, drowsiness, tiredness, and irritability will disappear. In general, drinking birch sap in its pure form is a pleasure. It is a pleasant, refreshing and strengthening drink.
Collection of birch sap. © Carol Byrne How to prepare birch sap for good?
125 g of sugar and 5 g of citric acid are added to 1 liter of birch sap. Then filtered, poured into jars, pasteurized and twisted with lids. It is useful to mix birch sap with other juices from fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as to infuse it on mint leaves, lemon balm, thyme, St. John's wort, lime blossom, rose hips, lingonberries.
birch kvass
A bag with burnt crusts of rye bread or crackers is lowered on a rope into an oak barrel with birch sap. After two days, fermentation will begin. Then oak bark, berries or cherry leaves, as well as dill stalks are poured into the barrel. After two weeks, kvass is ready.
There is another recipe. Birch sap is heated to 35 ° C, yeast is added to it at the rate of 15-20 g per 1 liter. The leaven is placed for 3-4 days in a cold place, then poured into containers and preserved.
birch syrup
In addition to kvass, fresh birch sap (sweet and slightly sour in taste) can be used to make a tasty and healthy syrup (it can be added to tea or mixed with water). After evaporation, the concentration of sugar in it reaches 60-70%. This syrup has a lemon-white color and the density of honey. It has been proven that sweet syrup made from birch sap not only prevents dental caries, but even stops its development.
In spring, nature comes to life, and at this time of the year, sap flows along the birch trunk. It doesn't taste sweet at all. It resembles water from a spring. But it is a storehouse of useful substances. To get the most benefit, you need to know when birch sap is harvested.
What time of year is it harvested?
The exact date when you can collect the juice, no one knows. It depends on the climate, weather conditions. If the buds begin to swell on a birch, you can try to collect a drink. If the kidneys are dry - do not rush.
The sap is usually harvested after the spring equinox. To find out if he appeared, you need to come to the forest at the end of March, make a cut with a thin awl. This should be done on the south side of the tree - this side is more warmed by the sun. It is better to choose a thick tree. If a drop has come out at the site of the incision, then sap flow begins, you can collect it.
In what month is the juice harvested? The liquid goes from the end of March to the end of April. First, it appears on birch trees warmed by the sun (at the edge of the forest). Then the sun moves deeper into the thicket, distant birch trees warm up, and you can collect juice from them. Speaking about whether it is possible to collect in the city, it should be remembered that the air is polluted, therefore, the juice may not be useful, but, on the contrary, harm or cause allergies. Therefore, in the city, liquid is not collected from a birch.
Important! The air temperature should warm up to 5 degrees. The best time to collect is from 11.00 to 16.00.
If, after warm days, frosts or rains begin, then it is better to postpone the trip for a drink. Many people wonder if it is possible to collect juice in May? You can, but the taste becomes bitter. However, it retains its beneficial properties. Therefore, we can say that the taste depends on the time of collection, and not only on weather conditions and terrain.
How to collect juice correctly - ways
It is necessary to collect birch sap without damaging the trees. You must follow the rules:
- Do not make deep cuts with an ax, as the liquid is between the bark and the wood. It is better to take a drill with a drill no more than 1 cm (the bark overgrows better).
- Do not take all the juice from the tree. It is better to collect no more than 1 liter per day from one tree (in total, it is recommended to collect no more than 10 liters from one tree per season).
- Do not collect liquid from young trees. It is believed that the juice from mature birches is sweeter. You need to choose trees with a diameter of more than 25 cm.
- After collecting the juice, hammer a wooden plug into the hole. The tree will heal faster.
So, in order to assemble correctly, you need to choose a tree with a slight slope (this will make it easier to install the bottle). Three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening) you must come and pick up a drink. If it is clear that the birch gives little product, you should not drill other holes in it, expand what has been done. You just need to change the tree. Usually birch gives 2-3 liters per day.
When it becomes clear that more liquid cannot be collected from the tree, you need to help him heal the wound. In order not to damage the tree, you should find an old dry branch, with a diameter slightly larger than the drill, plug the hole with it. So the juice will not pour out, but will flow along the branches. The next year there will be no trace left of the hole.
Collection methods:
- With the help of a groove. Drill a small hole about 30 cm from the ground. Peel the top layer of bark around the hole so that dirt does not get into the juice. Set the v-groove with an ax at a 45 degree angle. Substitute a bottle (bag, bucket).
- Collection without accessories. Find a flat place on the birch, make a v-shaped incision. Bend the incised bark a little (to make a hook). Attach a container for a drink.
- In packages. Choose a thick branch. It should move away from another thick branch (not from the trunk) to the side, and not up. Cut off the end. Attach container. You can just put the bottles on the branches.
- With the help of a dropper. Drill a hole in the birch, clean it. Remove the needle from the dropper, insert the spout. Put a needle on the other end of the dropper, pierce the bottle with it. The liquid will flow through the dropper into the bottle.
Anyone can choose the most suitable collection method for themselves.
How to store birch sap
Of course, it is best to drink fresh birch sap. You need to drink at least 0.5 liters per day to feel the benefits. In the refrigerator or cellar, it is stored for no more than a month. It is best to store it by freezing: this way it will retain more nutrients.
Storage methods:
- Pasteurization. For 1 liter of liquid, take 150 g of sugar, a pinch of citric acid. Mix everything thoroughly, filter through gauze, pour into jars and boil for 10 minutes. Roll up the lids, put in the pantry. The disadvantage of this method is that sugar and citric acid will change the taste of the juice.
- Fermentation. Strain the juice, pour into containers. Cover with lids and cloth. Put in a place where there will be an optimal fermentation temperature of 10-15 degrees for 3 days. The drink may become cloudy. You can store it until mid-summer.
- Freeze. Pour the drink into glass bottles and freeze.
- Useful drink. Mix juice with mint and rose hips. Pasteurize.
- Evaporation. Evaporate 5 liters of liquid in an open pan. You should get 0.5 liters of syrup with a sugar concentration of 70% (like honey).
- Leaven. Add sugar, yeast and raisins to the juice. When it begins to ferment, pour into containers, close tightly with lids, put in a dark, cool place (cellar). Stored for at least three months.
- Birch kvass. For 0.5 l of juice, take 1 tsp. sugar, three raisins, a little lemon zest. Ferment the drink in glass bottles, attach the lid tightly. This is a folk recipe patented by the Academy of Medical Sciences.
- Birch-pine drink. For 50 liters of juice, take 3 kg of pine needles (scalded), heat to 80 degrees, insist 6-7 hours. Then strain, add sugar, citric acid. Pour into glass jars, pasteurize for 30 minutes at a temperature of 95 degrees.
- Storage in cans. Pour the drink into stainless steel cans. Insert a tube into the lid, plug it with a wooden cork. Pour well-roasted young barley into a gauze bundle and place in a can (so that the juice does not turn sour). The juice will change its color and taste (to bread), but it will be tasty and good for the liver.
There are a lot of recipes, all of them do not require much effort to prepare.
Birch drink has a positive effect on the body:
- normalizes digestion: relieves spasms and colic, improves appetite;
- stabilizes the acidity of gastric juice: a lower level of acidity increases, an increased one lowers;
- dissolves kidney stones, has a diuretic property;
- helps with atherosclerosis - cleanses blood vessels from cholesterol plaques;
- has an expectorant property, it can be used for bronchitis;
- restores metabolism, being a low-calorie drink;
- treats anemia, increases the level of hemoglobin in the blood;
- helps with colds: increases sweating, brings down the temperature;
- treats a runny nose;
- brings the pressure back to normal;
- fights beriberi and spring blues;
- relieves age spots (juice is applied externally in the form of a lotion);
- stimulates growth and reduces oiliness of hair;
- tonic, improves immunity.
The benefits are due to the fact that it contains such substances:
- organic acids;
- tannins;
- fructose;
- enzymes;
- a large amount of vitamin C;
- mineral elements.
Contraindications:
- exacerbation of stomach ulcers;
- exacerbation of urolithiasis;
- individual intolerance.
Birch sap is used in folk medicine. It helps to get rid of many diseases, improving the general condition of the body:
- With anemia, they drink it, mixing it with carrot or apple. Taking 50 ml 15 minutes before meals can increase hemoglobin levels.
- To increase immunity, a birch drink is mixed with milk in equal proportions and consumed orally.
- For diseases of the digestive system, drink pure juice of 50 ml.
- Skin diseases are treated with birch lotions, compresses.
- To cleanse the body of toxins and toxins, drink 200 ml in the morning before breakfast for 6 weeks.
Important! In the treatment of cough, birch sap is heated.
Birch sap can be found on store shelves. But assembling it yourself is not difficult. The main thing is to choose a method convenient for yourself that does not harm the tree. Birch sap collected in spring is a very valuable and useful product.
Birch sap is a very useful natural drink, which is endowed with a mass of healing properties and has an extremely beneficial effect on the human body. This is the so-called elixir of beauty, health, vitality and strength. This is because it contains many useful substances, organic acids and trace elements. Today we will learn everything about birch sap, talk about its benefits, how, where and when to collect, as well as how to store the drink.
All about the benefits of birch sap
Birch sap contains fructose, glucose, sucrose, organic acids, enzymes and substances that have great antimicrobial activity (phytoncides), as well as potassium, iron, manganese, calcium, sodium, magnesium, copper, which are required by the body weakened by spring beriberi.
Birch sap is endowed with a huge amount useful properties:
- Perfectly strengthens the immune system.
- Normalizes the work of the heart.
- It has an anti-inflammatory effect on the body.
- It improves metabolism and is very useful for brain function.
- Tones, invigorates and energizes the body.
- Just one glass of drink a day will relieve you of drowsiness, fatigue and depression.
- The drink is called one of the best dietary and restorative remedies.
- It is very useful for people with diseases of the urinary tract and kidneys - it stimulates kidney function, has a diuretic effect, promotes the release of uric acid and increases diuresis.
- Useful for lung diseases, bronchitis, tuberculosis, tonsillitis, cough.
- Relieves headaches and migraines.
- Useful for venereal diseases.
- It is recommended to take a drink for diseases of the liver, gallbladder, duodenum and with low acidity.
- Helps with high blood pressure and anemia.
- It has a therapeutic effect in arthritis, radiculitis and rheumatism.
- Able to purify the blood and remove toxic substances from the body.
- Taking birch sap, you can increase the body's resistance to allergic, infectious and colds.
- In chronic rhinitis, it is recommended to take one glass of fresh birch sap every morning.
- Endowed with anthelmintic, antitumor and diuretic action.
- It is useful to wipe the skin with acne, eczema, psoriasis, furunculosis, neurodermatitis, fungal diseases, poorly healing wounds,
Important!To preserve birch sap for a long time, it can be frozen in ice molds and used as cosmetic ice.
Birch sap is widely used in cosmetology:
- Perfectly cleanses and refreshes the skin, and for this it is enough just to wash it in the morning.
- Used to moisturize and cleanse dry skin.
- Used for washing the head - to strengthen the hair, their rapid growth, giving softness and shine to the hair; used to fight dandruff.
- You can also do anti-cellulite wraps.
Did you know?The Soviet poet Stepan Shchipachev wrote the story "Birch sap" in 1956.
How to determine collection time
The collection begins in the spring during the first thaws, and ends after bud break. The beginning of the collection is dictated by weather conditions. But often the juice begins to flow somewhere in the middle of March, when the snow melts and the buds begin to swell, and continues to run until the middle - end of April.
You can check whether the time has come to collect and harvest, using a thin awl. It is necessary to go out into the forest and make a puncture in a birch as thick as a hand with this awl. If the juice has already gone, then a drop will immediately come out at the puncture site. This will mean that you can start collecting and harvesting.
Important! The most intensive sap flow through the tree occurs during daylight hours.
Is it possible to collect birch sap in urban areas
Answering the question whether it is possible to collect juice in the city, we immediately warn you: no, don’t even think about it. It is necessary to collect away from large cities, from highways, from large factories and polluted places, since the tree can absorb all harmful substances and vehicle exhaust gases from the environment. The juice that will be collected from such trees will not only not bring any benefit, but can also be harmful to health.
The best places to collect
To get really healthy juice, the place of collection must be chosen very carefully. It is best collected in ecologically clean forests away from urban areas, industrial areas and highways.
Features of the collection, how to properly collect a healthy drink
Before you take birch sap, you need to know some simple, but very important rules and terms of collection:
- Young trees cannot be used for collection, only mature trees that have a diameter of 20 cm.
- Use a drill with a 5-10 mm drill to collect. Such a hole overgrows in the trunk almost without a trace.
- It is not necessary to make a hole too deep in the tree trunk, because the juice mainly goes in the surface layer between the bark and the wood. It will be enough 2-3 cm deep.
- The best time for collection is between 10:00 and 18:00, when the juice flows most intensively.
- Do not try to drain all the juice from one tree, otherwise you can destroy it. It would be better to go around five to ten trees and drain a liter a day from each.
- At the end of the collection, be sure to help the tree heal its wounds. Cover the hole with wax, garden pitch, or seal or hammer a wooden plug to keep bacteria out of the barrel.
As regards, in fact, how get birch sap:
- Choose a birch with a well-developed crown with a diameter of more than 20-30 cm.
- Make a hole carefully in the trunk at a distance of 20 cm from the ground.
- Attach a birch bark tray or some other semicircular device into the hole made or under it, along which the juice will flow.
- Place a jar, bottle or bag under the groove where the juice will run.
The number of holes made in the barrel depends on its diameter. With a tree diameter of 20-25 cm, only one hole can be made, and then one more hole for every ten centimeters. But the main thing is not to overdo it with holes, because the more the tree is injured, the more difficult it will be for it to heal its wounds.
Storage methods, studying recipes
It is best to use the juice fresh, when boiling some of its properties are lost. But how long can it be stored? If we talk about how long it can be stored in the refrigerator - no more than two days, and for long-term storage it is necessary to do some manipulations with it.
Storage methods (recipes) are known to be different. From it you can make kvass, syrup, balm, various drinks, or canned.
Canning. For one liter of birch sap, you need to take 125 g of sugar, add 5 g of citric acid, pour into jars, pasteurize and roll up with lids. 
Birch syrup. Evaporate the juice to a yellow-white color until it becomes viscous and resembles in consistency. The concentration of sugar in syrup is 60-70%.
Birch wine. For 10 liters of birch sap, you need to take 1 kg of sugar, two peels, two bottles of white grape wine, yeast. Boil the juice with sugar over high heat until about eight liters of liquid remain; then take it off the heat, add the rinds and white wine, mix everything well and let the mixture cool down. Add 0.5 tablespoon of yeast and leave for four days. After four days, bottle everything, cork the bottles and put in a dark, cold place for a month.
Kvass:
- For 10 liters of Syria you need 50 g of yeast. It must be boiled so that some water evaporates, cool, add yeast and let it ferment for several days, then pour kvass into bottles, close and put in a cold place for a couple of weeks.
- For 10 liters you will need the juice of four lemons, 50 g of yeast, 30 g of honey or sugar, raisins. Mix all this, pour into bottles and leave in a cold dark place.
- Pour birch sap into an oak barrel, lower a canvas bag with burnt crusts of rye bread on a rope, and two days later put oak bark in a barrel, you can also leave or stems
