How and when to collect birch sap

Birch is an unusual tree, which can not be confused with any other. Since ancient times, people of Russia composed songs, sayings and proverbs about the birch, admired its beauty and accepted with gratitude its lares: wood, tar, birch bark, and also natural birch sap - a magnificent useful refreshing drink. Birch juice is transparent and only slightly sweet in taste, despite the sugar content of about 2%. This ecologically pure drink is rich in proteins, vitamins, organic acids, trace elements and brings a lot of health benefits. Birch juice can destroy kidney stones, helps with diseases of the gallbladder and liver. Also, it is very useful for digestion, helps to cleanse the body of all kinds of harmful substances and serves as an excellent fortifying agent. In the springtime, there is nothing better than drinking a glass of fine pure and natural refreshing drink, which brings us the gift of nature itself. And it is very unfortunate that at a time when it is possible to collect birch sap, most urban residents do not have such an opportunity. After all, even if you can buy this drink in stores, when preserving it, it loses most of its useful properties. A fresh birch juice stored in the refrigerator no more than two or three days, and then begins to wander.

And when can you collect birch sap? How to do it? Let us consider the answers to these questions in more detail. As a rule, the beginning of the season, when you can collect birch sap can be considered the middle of March, but this period depends heavily on the weather and climate conditions of the region in a given year. You can start to collect juice when the snow melts. Then the water begins to flow to the roots of the tree, and all the stock of starch in the roots and trunk turns into sugar, dissolves in water. This solution rises up the trunk to give life to fresh greens. The collection period, unfortunately, is very short - only about two weeks - until the first leaves appear on the tree. Best juice moves along the trunk in the morning, when the sun is high shining brightly. To determine exactly whether the long-awaited period of collection of juice has come, you need to make a small puncture on the birch with a thin thorn. If a drop of juice appears on the site of damage, then you can start collecting it. To do this, it is better to choose trees standing on the hills and open fringes - where there is a lot of sun. The juice of such birches has a higher content of nutrients.

It is very important in the process of collecting the juice not to harm the birch itself. You should be very careful in choosing a tree for these purposes. There are cases when collecting birch sap can not be in any way - it will kill the birch. The basic rule: a tree should not be too young or too old. As you know, the age of a tree is determined by the thickness of its trunk, so the optimal choice for a birch with a diameter of about 20-30 centimeters. In addition, the tree should not be sick. As already mentioned, it is better to look for a birch tree that sees a lot of sunlight. Do not be greedy and try to take more from the tree than it can give: a liter of juice for a period of 2-3 days is enough. Selecting a suitable tree you need to do in its bark hole with a chisel or knife. The hole should not be excessively deep. In it is placed a tube or a groove made of aluminum or plastic, through which the juice will go out. Now it only remains to substitute a vessel suitable for collecting the juice and periodically check its fillability. In some cases it is enough simply to hang the bottle on a broken bough without causing additional damage to the birch tree.

Now, knowing how and when to collect birch sap, we can use knowledge and get incredible pleasure and benefit from using a wonderful natural drink, which is shared with us by a birch - an amazing and dear tree of every person in Russia.