Making drinks from birch sap. Birch sap - the benefits, harms, extraction and storage of birch sap

17.04.2019 Vegetable Dishes

TOP 5 best recipes from birch sap at home

In addition to a wonderful delicate taste, it has long been famous for its beneficial properties.

How to collect birch sap?

The process of collecting the drink can be described as follows:

Healing fluid is collected only from mature trees. Their trunk diameter should be at least 20 cm. If you collect a drink from young birches, then they will be irreparably damaged, and they may dry out.
The hole in the barrel is best done with a drill. This method will do less damage to the tree.
The hole should be made 2-4 cm deep. A tin or plastic groove is inserted into it or gauze is tied. The ends of the fabric are tucked into the neck of the container where the liquid is collected.
Collect it in plastic bottles. Previously, glass jars were used for this; in the old days, special birch-bark tues were used to collect the drink.
Some collectors shorten several branches and hang plastic bottles on the stumps.
Holes in the trunk are made at a height of 30-100 cm.
In the season of collecting birch sap from one tree, you can collect 10-20 liters of liquid. In cloudy weather, it flows more slowly, faster on a sunny day.
There can be several holes for collecting juice on one tree. They are done depending on the diameter of the barrel. With the increase in the barrel, one hole is added for every 10 cm.
Finish collecting useful fluid by sealing a hole in a tree with garden var, wax, plasticine.

Birch sap lemonade (video)

What is the drink good for?

Birch sap is best consumed fresh. The drink contains sugar, their concentration is 0.5-2%, salts of various metals, trace elements, vitamin complex, organic acids. It contains tannins and volatile, enzymes, hormones of plant nature. In a year, it is useful for a person to drink up to 10 liters of birch sap.

The healing fluid of birch is indicated for urolithiasis, as it helps to destroy stones. A properly assembled drink effectively helps in the treatment of diseases of the stomach and liver. It facilitates the condition of the patient with headaches.

It is good to take birch sap for colds, bronchitis, and coughs. It reduces pain during rheumatism, radiculitis, and arthritis. The liquid washes a lot of harmful substances from the body.

The drink helps in stimulating metabolism and cell regeneration. Everyone loves it for a dietary and refreshing taste.

It helps with spring vitamin deficiency. It is recommended to drink with anemia, tuberculosis. The usefulness of its use in cancer and skin diseases has been proven. The drink has good diuretic and anthelmintic properties. It is taken to prevent caries.

The usefulness of the properties of juice in the fight against puffiness is noted, which makes it indispensable for pregnant and lactating women. It is recommended to give children at elevated temperatures, it does not cause allergic reactions.

A natural drink from birch cleanses the blood and kidneys. It serves as a body-strengthening agent, and it is simply a delicious thirst quencher.

Birch sap recipe (video)

Storage of birch sap

Fresh birch drink is stored without processing for no more than 2 days. Then he begins to lose his useful properties. To be able to drink it for a year, the liquid is canned, boiled syrup, birch kvass is prepared.

They say that the best way to preserve the beneficial properties of a birch drink is to freeze it. Few people use this method, since there is no place to store juice processed by this method. To process birch sap at home for long-term storage is better in the form of kvass and canning by hot bottling.

Kvass recipes. An essential ingredient in the manufacture of birch kvass are fried barley grains.

The juice filtered through cheesecloth is poured into a glass container, washed dried fruits and fried barley grains are poured. The mixture is well mixed and left in a cold place for fermentation. After a week, kvass can be drunk. In a cool basement, such a drink is stored for up to 6 months. Recipe: 500 g of drying are added to 20 l of liquid from birch (apples, pears, plums can be in a mixture or in separate portions), 500 g of fried barley grains.
In a large container, juice and sugar are mixed and left to ferment for several days. Then the kvass is poured into glass bottles, several raisins are added to each of them, closed with corks, corks are fixed with wire, because a large amount of carbon dioxide will be created in the bottle. Recipe: 1 tsp is added to 1 liter of juice sugar without top. 5-7 raisins are added to the whole bottle.

Canning. A modern way of processing it for long-term storage is to sterilize a drink by hot bottling. Juice is poured into a saucepan, sugar and citric acid are added, boiled until foam settles, filtered through 4 layers of gauze in steamed glass jars. Close the lids and turn the lids down on a horizontal surface. Wrap them on top with a warm blanket and leave to cool completely.

Preparation of glass containers. Cans are washed with hot water and set aside for a while to drain the water. Water is drained. The container is placed in an oven preheated to 80 ° C. Cans can withstand at this temperature for 20-30 minutes. Take out the cans carefully so as not to get a burn.

The lids are washed, laid in a saucepan, poured with water and boiled for 5-10 minutes.

Recipe: 100 g of sugar and 2.5 g of citric acid are added to 1 liter of drink. Citric acid can be replaced with slices of fresh lemon.

Birch sap lends itself well to blending. A mint flavored drink can be made with 1-2 mint candies added to the can before bottling.

Blending with dried fruits and rose hips. Pre-washed dried fruits or dogrose are boiled in birch sap until soft. The blend is filtered. Pour 1/3 of the blend and 2/3 of the birch sap with sugar and citric acid into each jar. In this case, the recipe for the ingredients is as follows: 125 g of sugar and 5 g of citric acid are added to 1 liter of drink.

They increase the amount of sugar and citric acid, since the blend is not sweetened or acidified in advance.

You can blend the prepared birch drink with caraway seeds, aronia, apple and pear juice. It acquires an interesting taste, beautiful amber color, its beneficial properties are improved.

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 what birch sap is, the first thing he remembers 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 it will be later. And this is somewhat alarming.

On the other hand, the time now is when a person learns about natural food products not in the forest, in a clearing or near a river, but in a store, studying the colorful labels of semi-finished products.

Well, and what kind of health can be discussed here ...

However, we deviated greatly 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 harvest it and whether it should be stored for a long time.

So let's get started ...

The benefits and harms of birch sap

Birch sap is a woody elixir of life that nourishes 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 the biological role of birch sap so clearly defined, 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 the sweet taste, which is a kind of "calling card" of birch sap. In fact, these two fluids have different chemical compositions.

The maximum that water is capable of is mineral saturation. Birch sap, in turn, contains minerals, vitamins, enzymes, volatile, fructose, tannins, organic acids, essential oils and, most likely, much more. Because under the microscope, even in our advanced century, not everything is visible.

Thanks to its 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 exception is only two categories of people:

those who were not lucky to “get at their disposal” an allergy to pollen from birch catkins
healthy children under the age of six months, who are able to eat their mother’s breast milk (no one will give birch sap to sick children at this age, but hypothetically he can help them)

To all the rest, birch sap will be a good help in life, since it establishes metabolic processes in the body, and with regular use it is able to quite quickly remove a huge amount of toxins from the digestive tract and human blood.

In addition, all kinds of inorganic deposits (salts, trans fats, etc.), which await their time 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
kidney stones, urinary and gall bladders (it is necessary 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
tonsillitis, 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, here we have not a medical encyclopedia, but only a small article about health. Therefore, this is where we will finish the conversation about beneficial properties and diseases.

We only note that fresh raw birch sap has the greatest healing 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 Juice” 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 the 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 here is it possible to bring benefits to the body exclusively from the juice that was collected away from any plants, cities, major roads (including railways) and agricultural fields.

Only in this case the birch sap will 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 birch trees, and until the first leaves appear. At the same time, harvesting in sunny glades can begin a little earlier than in the depths of the forest. True, and the leaves here bloom faster than in the wilderness. Therefore, start with glades and gradually move to darker places.

You can check if the juice has flowed, using a thin awl - pierce the bark and see if a drop of juice appears. If there is - you can start collecting.

Trees should be selected, guided by the following parameters:

trunk thickness at adult chest level - at least 20 cm
developed "magnificent" crown

To cause minimal harm to the birch, the hole in the trunk should be made at an angle of about 45 degrees (to make it easier to drain the juice), with a thin drill - not wider than 1 cm, not more than 3 cm deep. As a groove, you can use curved pieces of tin, wooden and plastic 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 criteria indicated above can produce an average of 1 to 7 liters of juice. At the same time, the holes made are delayed over time, and we get less and less juice. We recommend not making the hole deeper, but simply replacing the tree. Just be sure to treat the damaged area - hermetically cover the hole with garden varnish, 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 on quality. After this time, as well as when stored warm, birch sap very quickly begins to sour. 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 needs to be frozen quickly, then everything useful will remain in it.

If there is no freezer, then you can “roll” birch sap into sterilized glass jars. To do this, it is heated to 80 ° C, poured into cans and rolled up with tin lids. Then the corked cans 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 cans and sealed. And before use, such a concentrate is mixed with water.

What is prepared from birch sap?

Since the “discovery” of birch sap, people have come up with dozens of recipes for making tasty and healthy (though not always) drinks, which include all kinds of kvass, syrups, homemade wines, fruit smoothies, sweet “water” and others.

The simplest drink is obtained by mixing birch sap with fruit or vegetable juices. In any proportions - to taste.

A little more complicated is preparing birch kvass (one of the options):
Fresh birch juice is poured into a glass bottle, a handful of raisins (at the rate of several pieces per liter) and sugar (2 tsp per liter) are added there. If desired, you can also throw a little lemon peel, fruit or berries into the bottle. Then the bottle must be tightly closed and put in a cool place. In a few days, the kvass will be ready, but you can open it both immediately and after 2-3 months. Do not spoil.

Another option is birch-bread kvass:
Pour birch sap into any clean container (preferably in an oak barrel), drop a cloth bag with rye breadcrumbs into it and close the vessel. After a few days, the juice will ferment, and dill stalks, cherry leaves and oak bark can be added to it. Then the future kvass closes for at least 2 weeks. Then the vessel can be opened, and kvass can be drunk.

Prepared from birch sap and medicinal drinks. Usually, birch sap is mixed with berries and honey for these purposes.

For example, we give a recipe for preparing a birch-lingonberry drink:
The first step is to squeeze the juice from 150 grams of lingonberry. Then put the squeeze 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 really like sweets). To drink - according to the 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 the 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 have to stock up on berries and dried fruits well ...

Birch sap, or birch, is a very valuable product that has a beneficial effect on the entire human body.

A LITTLE ABOUT WATER AND SOLUTIONS

Recall the inextricably linked triad: COMPOSITION, STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES.

With the same composition, there can be a different structure of the substance and, therefore, its various properties.

An example would be isomers of glucose and fructose sugars having the same C6H12O6 composition, but different molecular structures and very different properties.

Water does not consist of H2O molecules, but of clusters built, for the most part, of 2-5 molecules.

These clusters are interconnected into very complex water structures. The number of such possible water structures is extremely numerous. An example of this is the shape of snowflakes: among the studied billions of snowflakes, two identical ones have not yet been found.

In natural water, in addition to water molecules with light hydrogen (H - protium) H2O, small quantities also contain water molecules with heavy hydrogen (D - deuterium) D2O and superheavy hydrogen (T - tritium) T2O.

In addition, there is no pure water in nature, but there are always aqueous solutions of various substances in different concentrations, the presence of which greatly changes the water structure.

The content of rather harmful heavy D2O and superheavy T2O water is sharply reduced in birch sap, and there is also a special liquid structure that is very beneficial for health. Therefore, birch sap is useful not so much with the solutes contained in it, but with its special liquid structure.

This structure begins to gradually change immediately after extracting the juice from the birch and after 2 hours it becomes already strongly changed.

Therefore, it is fresh birch sap that is especially useful, not stored and not preserved.

Drinking fresh birch juice is a pleasure. This is a pleasant, refreshing and firming drink that tastes little different from plain water. Since ancient times, it has been famous for its healing properties - it is an environmentally friendly, tasty, healing, refreshing soft drink.

Until the sticky leaves have bloomed (about a month before the leaves and blooms appear, during the snowmelt), sap flow begins in the birches, called the “birch cry”. Within 15-20 days, the birch gives us a slightly sweet birch sap.

The juice of a tree growing near a busy highway or in the industrial zone of the city will do harm instead of good. It makes no sense to buy birch juice in stores, as during canning, almost all useful substances are destroyed.

How to get juice?

It is necessary to cut out a small square of the outer cortex and, at the cleared place, rotate the groove 3-4 cm at the cleared place. Juice will flow in a brisk stream. You can attach a tin groove, you can distill it into a bottle using a gauze ribbon.

After collecting the juice, it is necessary to densely cover the incision with plasticine, wax, laundry soap or hammer it with moss. This will protect the tree from the penetration of bacteria and fungi.

In the old days, birch sap was collected in special tueski from birch bark - it was believed that in them it better retains its properties. But with equal success, juice can be collected in glass jars or in plastic bottles.

How to take the juice and not harm the tree.

Firstly, it should be taken from trees with a diameter of 20-30 cm, it is better not to touch young and old birches.
Secondly, one tree can take no more than 1 liter of juice in 2-3 days. You can break through the bark with a knife or a chisel (but not very deep). A groove of thin aluminum or plastic is inserted into the slot, through which the juice will drop by drop into the container. Then, when the juice is collected, do not forget to cover the hole with garden varnish, plug it with a piece of moss or cover it with wax.

There is a more gentle way: only a branch on a knot is cut, and a bottle is hung on a stump. Using this technique, you can hang several glass or plastic bottles on one tree at once.

The trimmed knot should be lowered a little down (a branch can be tied with a rope to the lower knot or to a tree trunk).

In the afternoon, when the sun warms up, the juice runs faster - this must be remembered, checking in time how the container is filled.

The best time to collect juice is the interval between 12 and 18 hours, when it flows most strongly.
The number of holes that can be made depends on the diameter of the birch trunk: if the diameter of the trunk is 20-25 cm, only one, at 25-35 cm — two, at 35-40 cm — three, and if the diameter is more than 40 cm, it is permissible to make four holes .

The period of release of birch sap depends on weather conditions. For example, if during the March thaw the juice has already started to flow, and the cold suddenly hit, it can stop being released for a while. As a rule, the juice begins to run when the snow melts and the buds swell around mid-March. Collect juice stop when the leaves bloom in the second half of April.

Collect "birch tears" is only necessary in environmentally friendly forests, because the tree is able to absorb harmful substances and exhaust gases.

It is best to choose a birch whose diameter is not less than 20 cm, with a well-developed crown.
At a distance of 20 cm from the ground in the trunk of a tree gently make a small hole. It is important to know that, basically, the juice goes in the surface layer between the bark and the wood, so you should not make a deep hole.

A tray of birch bark or another semicircular fixture along which the juice will flow is attached to the hole or under it. The groove should be directed to a bottle, jar or bag.
Store birch sap in the refrigerator and not more than 2 days (although some store up to 1 month, but the juice loses almost all of its useful properties).

Like any juice, birch sap is best consumed fresh, stored no more than 2 hours.

With proper tapping, when the bark and several layers of wood are gently clipped, there is no great harm to the tree. In the scientific literature there is no mention of the death of birches due to the extraction, even industrially, of birch sap. By the way, one of the indicators of the activity of a birch is the juice productivity. If it went down from year to year, one could say that tapping undermines the health of the tree. However, five-year observations of tapping in the Middle Urals showed that the juice productivity not only does not decrease, but, on the contrary, tends to increase.

Natural birch sap is known for its healing properties.

For medicinal purposes, two types of birch are most often used - hung and spreading. They use buds, leaves, juice, activated carbon, tar obtained by dry distillation of wood, xylitol, a sugar substitute for diabetics, obtained from waste wood, and all this is widely used in medicine.

Useful biological compounds, salts and minerals, dissolving in the juice, form an almost universal medicine. It contains 0.5 - 2% sugar, rich in vitamins. The juice contains enzymes, organic acids, tannins, salts of calcium, potassium, iron, plant hormones, glucose, and substances with high antimicrobial activity (phytoncides).

Every year a person should consume at least 8-10 liters of birch sap.

Birch sap destroys urinary stones, is effective in treating gastric and liver ulcers, headaches, bronchitis, cough, as well as for rheumatism, radiculitis and arthritis, removes harmful substances from the body. In addition, birch sap has a regenerating effect and stimulates the metabolism, is also an excellent dietary and refreshing drink.

Birch sap helps with beriberi, anemia, tuberculosis, uterine cancer, colds and skin diseases. It is also taken as a diuretic and antihelminthic, edema of cardiac origin, scrofula, gout, for the prevention of dental caries.

Systematic reception of birch sap has a tonic and tonic effect. Spring birch sap is taken with avitaminosis, allergic diseases, with stones in the kidneys and bladder, with scrofula, scurvy, cold, and with anemia. And it is especially useful for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, tonsillitis.

Birch sap is rich in nicotinic, malic and glutamic organic acids. It contains potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and tannins. Thanks to these components, birch sap has good tonic cosmetic properties.

The antioxidant and antitumor activity of birch sap is mentioned in the scientific literature. It is also recommended to drink it in case of various diseases of the respiratory system, including tuberculosis; stones in the kidneys and gall bladder, gout, rheumatism, edema, non-healing wounds and ulcers.

From the point of view of phytotherapy, birch sap is one of the best natural remedies for improving metabolism. Despite the fact that birch sap differs little from water, it ferments well and has a positive effect on the work of the stomach.

ABOUT BIRCH

Once, a birch in Russia was called the "tree of four affairs": "The first thing is to illuminate the world, the second thing is to cry for comfort, the third thing is to heal the sick, the fourth thing is to keep clean."

The Russian man mastered the diploma on birch bark, illuminated by the same birch spine.
The “cry” from the squeak of the trolley wheels was comforted by birch tar, and decoctions from the birch buds were given to babies “from the cry”.

And today, every year, fragrant and flexible birch brooms and brooms are harvested in the woods. For birch besom out of any competition in the bath, where he is not so much a guardian of purity, as a multilateral drug.

There is a wonderful remedy for treating various cuts, abrasions and skin lesions - "Birch". 3/5 bottles should be filled with sticky birch buds, poured with vodka under the neck, sealed tightly and left in a dark place for 4–3 weeks of infusion. Keep in the dark without draining the kidneys. The solution is well preserved in a dark cool place for 2-3 years.

For help to the birch appeals not only folk, but also scientific medicine. From all kinds of ailments, almost all parts of the tree have long been used: unopened buds, young leaves, and fungus growths on the trunks, and a strong antiseptic extracted from birch bark - birch tar.

Medical studies have shown that taking at least one glass a day for 2-3 weeks (optimally drinking three times a glass a half hour before meals) will help the body cope with spring weakness, vitamin deficiency, distraction, fatigue and depression.
Birch sap is contraindicated for those suffering from allergies to birch pollen.

Birch sap increases the body's resistance to colds, infectious and allergic diseases, has anthelmintic, diuretic, antitumor effect. Also, birch sap is useful to wipe the skin with eczema, acne, moisturizing and cleansing dry skin.

It is useful to apply the following mask on the skin: mix 1 tbsp. l sour cream with 2 tbsp. l birch sap and 1 tsp. honey It is necessary to hold such a mask for about 15 minutes, rinse with cool water, the skin after it will acquire a beautiful matte shade.

Birch sap is useful to wash hair with dandruff, to enhance their growth and the appearance of shine and softness. Infusion of birch leaves has the same property.

If you are over 40 years old, try periodically wiping your face with a tonic:
Mix a glass of birch sap with one bottle (40 ml) of ginseng tincture. Wipe your face with this mixture in the morning and in the evening before using day or night cream. But it is necessary after cleansing the skin.

The ideal cosmetic is natural birch sap. But it is only available in the spring, and then - if you have a birch grove at your side, also in an ecologically clean area.

For cosmetic purposes, you can buy canned birch juice at a grocery store. Even better is to use your own mined and frozen in small portions. Tincture of ginseng is sold in a pharmacy. By the way, it is possible in the same place for this purpose to buy tinctures of Rhodiola Rosea, Eleutherococcus or Sophora Japanese. All of them perfectly improve skin condition, slow down aging.

For the preservation of birch sap, you can add alcohol to fresh juice to obtain a strength of 16-18 degrees (volume percent). Store in a cool dark place. To enhance the effect, you can add 40-50 birch buds per half-liter bottle.

Birch sap is a good remedy for impotence, an aid for menopause: if you drink at least a glass of juice a day, drowsiness, fatigue, irritability and other phenomena accompanying menopause will disappear. Healthy people can take fresh birch sap unlimited (of course, avoiding an overdose of the total amount of liquid) instead of tea, fruit juice, water for 1-2 months.

You need to store the juice in the refrigerator, because it quickly deteriorates, turns sour. It is useful to mix birch sap with all types of juices, insist on St. John's wort, rosehips, mint leaves, thyme, lemon balm, basil, linden color, etc. The healing properties of medicinal plants, vegetables, fruits complement the therapeutic effect of birch sap.

In the case of high body temperature, sexually transmitted diseases, birch sap is drunk 1 glass before meals 3-4 times a day, following a milk-vegetable diet.

With avitaminosis, anemia, tuberculosis, in the case of atherosclerosis, edema of cardiac origin, scrofula, for the prevention of caries, as a diuretic, anthelmintic agent, birch sap is drunk 0.5-1 cup 3-4 times a day for 3-4 weeks.

In case of sore throats and other inflammatory diseases of the throat and mouth, birch sap rinses.

In case of chronic rhinitis, in the spring every morning you should drink 1 glass of fresh birch sap.

Birch sap well drives stones and sand from the kidneys and the bladder (it destroys urinary stones of predominantly phosphate and carbonate origin, without affecting oxalate and urine acid). To do this, it should be drunk on an empty stomach for 1 glass.

For gout, arthritis, rheumatism, as a diuretic and fortifying agent, the juice is taken internally in a glass three times a day. The course of treatment is 1-1.5 months.

Ways of placing the container when collecting birch sap

Step-by-step instructions for collecting birch sap

Inventory: hammer, drill, tubes (everything is round and hollow),
drill under the outer diameter of the tube and container (bottles).

Choose a larger tree and start drilling.
In the process of drilling the juice is already on the drill.
Deep drilling is not necessary, we regret the birch - enough
so that the inserted tube holds the weight of the bottle.

Hole is ready, clean it from sawdust.

Take the phone ...

...and hammer it into the hole.

After a couple of seconds, the first drops of birch sap are pouring.

We take a bottle (better plastic so that it is easier) and put it on with a neck
on a tube driven into a tree.

We are waiting for filling our tanks with wonderful birch sap.

An hour later, we see what nature has bestowed upon us.
And at once we drink fresh juice - it is the most useful!

After collecting the juice and getting drunk, MUST tightly hammer the hole cut out
from the branch of wooden cork.

BEDS OF BIRCH JUICE (OLD RECIPES)

FREEZING BIRCH JUICE - the best way to preserve it

Canning birch sap in banks is not a very sensible task.

Birch sap is especially good fresh. During pasteurization or sterilization, it loses a lot of vitamins and other beneficial substances.

To drink such canned juice in the summer when there are a lot of different berries and fruits is a pleasure below average.
So if you harvest the birch sap for a long time - then only by freezing it.
After defrosting, it retains almost all of its properties.

For cosmetic purposes, it should be frozen in small plastic bags.

BEREZOVIK (1st METHOD)

Cut the bark of a large young birch, make a transverse hole, firmly insert splint into it and substitute a pan or bowl under it. From a good tree you can get from 10 to 40 liters of juice.
Pour juice into a barrel, pour port wine and vodka there, add sugar and raisins. The contents of the barrel carefully prevent sugar to dissolve. The barrel can be sealed with a sleeve as tightly as possible and put in a cold place, preferably on ice, for 2.5 months.

After this period, bottled, carefully sealed, securing the cork by the neck using wire, put in a cellar or other cool place on its side.

On 5 liters of birch sap - 750 g of port wine, 500 g of vodka, 1.2 kg of granulated sugar, 600 g of raisins.

BEREZOVIK (2nd WAY)

In the barrel pour birch sap, port, add sugar, crumbled pulp of lemons with skin, but without seeds. Put the barrel in a cold place (preferably on ice) for 2 months. After this period the juice is poured into bottles, carefully sealed by attaching the corks to the neck with wire, and put into the cellar or other cool place sideways on the sand. Berezovik prepared in this way will be ready for use 3 weeks after spilling.

At 5 liters of birch sap - 1.6 kg of sugar, 2 lemons, 1 liter of port wine.

BEREZOVIK (3rd WAY)

Pour birch sap into the pelvis, put in the sugar, stir until it dissolves and boil until the third part of the juice boils. During boiling, remove the foam. Then remove the pelvis from the heat, strain its contents through a clean cloth directly into the barrel and, when the juice has cooled to 40 ° C, pour in the same yeast solution and vodka, put the lemons, cut them into circles and remove the bones. Barrel should not be full.
Leave the keg in a warm room for blocking for 10-12 hours, then take it to a cold room or on ice, and leave for 7 weeks.

After this time, strain the juice again, pour it into champagne bottles, seal it thoroughly, attach the corks to the neck of the bottle with a wire, and store in a cool place.
At 5 liters of birch sap - 1.6 kg of sugar, 2 tbsp. spoon yeast, 1 liter of vodka, 2 lemons.

BIRCH WATER

From the birch to release the juice, pour immediately on the bottle. Put sugar, lemon zest and raisins in each bottle. Seal the bottles thoroughly by attaching the corks to the neck of the bottle with wire and place in a cold place for 2-3 months. The finished drink should foam well. Before use, put sugar to taste.

At 0.5 liters of birch sap - zest with 1/4 lemon, 2 tsp sugar, 4 raisins.

VINEGAR FROM BIRCH JUICE

In the barrel pour birch sap, add vodka, honey. Put all this in a warm place, without clogging the keg.

Vinegar will be ready in 2 months.
To 2 liters of birch sap - 100 g of vodka, 40 g of honey.

This is an ancient popular recipe that allows you to keep birch sap in the cold for two or three months (fresh juice is stored for a short time - on the strength of several days). Proper storage increases the acidity of the kvass, without at all compromising its taste.

The juice is fermented in glass bottles of any volume. Rinse with hot water (preferably boiled), they are filled with fresh juice right by the leaking trees.

For every half-liter, add an incomplete teaspoon of ordinary or glucose sugar, 2-3 raisins, washed in cold boiled water, and — if you like — a bit of lemon peel.
The bottle is closed with a clean stopper and secured with wire or bandages.

The pressure of carbon dioxide in the bottle is created quite high, and so that the glass does not burst, it is not recommended to put more than the specified amount of sugar.

In a few days you will get a pleasant, sour, highly carbonated drink.

BIRCH KVASS

In an oak barrel with juice, a bag of burnt rye bread or bread crumbs is lowered onto the rope. After two days, fermentation will begin. Then in a barrel oak bark, berries or leaves of cherry, and also fennel stalks are poured. Two weeks later, kvass is ready.

There is another recipe for kvass. Birch sap is heated to 35 ° C, put in it the yeast at the rate of 15-20 g per 1 liter. Leaven put for 3-4 days in a cold place, then poured into containers and preserved.

GOLDEN BIRCH KVAS

He has a beautiful golden color and a wonderful aroma, and if you let him stand for a long time, he begins to wander and pleasantly stings his tongue.

In a container with birch sap (for example, a can) add apple drying (dry apples for compote), dried lemon balm and roasted barley (whole grains).

Such kvass is infused for several days in a cold place and is stored in the same cold place.

RECIPE OPTION

About 0.5 kg of pure roasted barley is poured into a 20-liter bottle of juice, and the bottle is placed in the cellar.
After a week and a half, an excellent kvass is ready, which can be stored in a dark and cool place for up to six months.

Fresh birch sap (sweet and slightly sour to taste) can be made tasty and healthy.

BIRCH SYRUP

(it can be added to tea or mixed with water)

After evaporation on the fire in an open dish (at the end - with stirring), the sugar concentration should be 60-70%. This syrup has a lemon-white color and thickness of honey.

It is proved that a sweet syrup made from birch sap not only prevents tooth decay, but even stops its development.

NOTE. Canadian maple sap, from which maple syrup is boiled by evaporation, is 3-4 times sweeter than birch. Therefore, syrup is usually not prepared from birch sap - fuel consumption is too high.

A simple modern method of harvesting birch sap for future use

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 twist the lids.

It is useful to mix birch sap with other juices obtained from fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as to insist on mint leaves, lemon balm, thyme, St. John's wort, linden blossom, rose hips, lingonberries.

Birch sap - an elixir for health

Our ancestors knew about the unique properties of birch - no wonder she was so revered by the ancient Slavs. It was believed that birch takes away adversity and disease, and in return brings happiness.

Birch branches and leaves, as a powerful magic symbol, after the sacred rituals served as a talisman for the house, the field and the garden - the birch drove away evil people, witches, evil spirits, protected from destructive natural phenomena.

Traditional medicine: what does birch treat

Everything is useful in birch: juice, bark, leaves, buds, and inflorescences. Note that birch whisks are so popular among those who like to steam in a bath, because the substances extracted from the leaves at high temperature have a great effect on the skin: they treat dermatitis, acne, eczema, and also help reduce cellulite and swelling.

Want to have beautiful hair? A decoction of birch leaves will help strengthen the curls, relieve dandruff and heal the scalp. This broth treats skin diseases, relieves pain in case of arthritis and rheumatism.

Infusions and decoctions of birch leaves or her kidneys are an excellent diuretic for kidney and urinary system diseases, for cholecystitis. Essential oil is made from birch buds.

It is used not only in medicine for the treatment of dermatitis, but also in perfumery - birch buds oil gives the characteristic aroma of expensive skin.

Tinctures made from birch earrings are used for heart diseases, gastritis and stomach ulcers. Only male earrings are suitable for these purposes, it is difficult to confuse them with female ones: unlike single female earrings, they grow by several pieces side by side.

Fresh birch bark helps to treat boils, and tablets from it - activated charcoal - are widely used for diseases of the stomach and intestines.

Even the birch mushroom, the chaga, is useful, only it is recommended to collect it in the fall. And spring, we repeat, is an excellent time for collecting birch sap.

This very tasty, healing, refreshing drink has a sweetish taste due to the content of healthy sugars in it: glucose, fructose, sucrose.

Birch sap is a storehouse of vitamins, especially vitamin C, and it also contains organic acids, aromatic, tanning, biologically active substances and compounds, a mass of mineral elements, including potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, manganese, copper, and even titanium.

Plant hormones and phytoncides that kill germs make birch sap a real natural immunostimulant.

Note that the positive properties of the juice are stronger than the rest, also therapeutic, parts of birch. After all, the juice contains all the life-giving power of the tree, which it saved for a long winter.

In addition to the entire spectrum of diseases - from dermatitis to arthritis - the juice cleanses the body of toxins, stimulates the metabolism, improves mood, and according to the latest data even helps women relieve menopause, and men - to fight impotence.

Birch sap: when and how to collect

In March-April, the awakening of the birch trees from winter sleep begins. Birch sap rises along the trunk to the tree buds.

This desire to juice up, to the branches, you can even hear, if you put your ear to the white bark. Characteristic noise is similar to the surf of the distant sea. It makes sense to collect the juice during a short period of time: experts devote no more than four weeks to this.

The beginning of the birch sap collection can be determined by ... the weather: when the day and night temperatures reach several degrees above zero (approximately after March 25), the birch wakes up.

The sap subsides when the first leaves begin to appear on the trees. And the time of day for collecting juice is also strictly defined: from ten in the morning until six in the evening, in the evening and at night the tree "sleeps."

Having decided on the time of collection, it is necessary to determine the tree. In a birch grove or forest it is necessary to choose a healthy birch tree, without damages and traces of the disease, with a trunk of at least 20-25 cm in diameter.

At a height of about 50 cm from the base, make a hole, with a diameter of up to 1 cm and a depth of about 2 cm, with a drill, knife or other sharp object, with a slight inclination upwards. Then it is necessary to insert a tube or groove into the hole, through which the juice will run off, and under the chute to tie a container for collecting juice.

From one tree you can collect no more than 1 liter of juice in 2-3 days, but you should not “drink” all the juice from a tree: it can die from such poaching. Therefore, usually the bottle is cleaned a day after the start of collection. The hole must be filled with a wooden plug, and then covered with garden pitch or wax.

A more gentle way of collecting the healing drink is as follows: they cut a branch at a knot, tilt it down, and a container for collecting juice is hung on it. So the juice is going slower, but the tree will lose less power.

Important:

- Do not collect juice in the city and suburb, it will not be environmentally friendly;
- you can collect the juice in specially designated places - birch forests, intended for cutting;
- if the birch is less than 30 cm in diameter, then only one hole can be made on it or a cut to collect the juice;
- Be sure to handle the hole in the trunk, otherwise the tree can get sick;
- if the juice goes bad, do not deepen the hole, but rather choose another tree;
- if the juice has an unpleasant smell, it may mean that the tree is infected with a fungus - you cannot drink such juice!
- allergy to birch sap;
- the juice deteriorates quickly, so it is better to drink it fresh.

More tips:

1. When choosing, it is better to give preference to a larger birch.
2. It is better to place tara for collection on the northern side of the tree so that the juice in the sun will not begin to wander.
3. Do not try to “milk” the birch to the last. It is better to collect the juice from several birches.
4. Do not collect the juice from the birch, near which there is an anthill - otherwise there will be an attempt on the sweet

Birch sap: recipes

The best thing you can do with birch sap is not to do anything with it! Just drink it immediately after collection, until all the beneficial substances are contained in full.

Store it in the refrigerator can be no more than two days. It is recommended to accept 1 glass 3 times a day.

Make cocktails: birch juice is good in combination with blueberry juice, viburnum, lingonberry, chokeberry, currant, apple and cherry, as well as with various infusions like chamomile, peppermint, linden, dog rose, thyme, St. John's wort, lemon balm.

Of course, birch sap in its pure form and mixed with other juices and herbs is the most useful drink, but if you want to preserve it, then try the following recipes.

Kvass is made from birch sap

To 5 liters of birch sap add juice from 2 lemons, diluted in birch sap 25 g of yeast, 20 g of honey or sugar. All ingredients are well stirred, bottled, put in each bottle 1-2 raisins, tightly closed and put in a dark cool place.
After a few days, the drink will be ready, but it can be stored for up to 4 months, periodically checking, as the bottles may burst from pressure.

Make birch sap wine

Boil 6 liters of birch sap and 350 grams of sugar to 5.5 liters, not forgetting to remove the foam. 1-2 slices of lemon are put into the container, 1 l of white table grape wine is added and hot birch sap is poured in here.
Cool the mixture to room temperature, add half a teaspoon of dry yeast, mix and leave for 3-4 days. Then the container is sealed and put in a cool place. After 2 weeks the wine will be ready.

By the way, the finished birch sap in bottles is similar to natural taste, but, alas, is of no value to health. Substances used for preservation neutralize all the beneficial properties of the juice.

Birch Leaf Recipes

If you do not have the opportunity to collect a useful birch elixir, do not worry. You remember that the leaves of this tree have the same powerful healing power, and they can also be eaten.

Once our ancestors used birch leaf as an additive to various dishes. Collect early, tender leaves, make a stew, dry seasoning, or just brew like herbal tea.

Birch Chowder

Birch leaves are passed through a meat grinder, 2 tbsp. spoons of the resulting mass is placed in boiling water (3 cups), add grated carrots and chopped onion, boil for 5-7 minutes. Let it brew for 15 minutes, and then served with sour cream.

Seasoning with birch leaves

Dry the leaves of birch and nettle. Crush them into powder together with a bud of cloves (for 1 teaspoon of birch leaves, you will need 1 teaspoon of nettle and 1 clove bud).

Store in a tightly closed glass container, in a dark and dry place, add to food just before readiness.

Healing Birch Leaf Tea

Two teaspoons of crushed leaves of birch pour 250 ml of boiling water and leave for 4 hours. Infusion filter and drink 0.5 cups 4-5 times a day in the form of heat, adding honey.

What could be more pleasant than a glass of a refreshing drink on a hot day? It is kvass that removes thirst like nothing else. And if it is made from birch sap, and, moreover, it is made by hand, it will double the beneficial effect on the person. How to make kvass from birch sap at home or in the country, you will be helped by visual step-by-step recipes that describe this process in detail.

How to strain sap from birch? How to make kvass from birch sap? What are the beneficial substances you get from the produced drink? - Answers to these questions are described in detail in the article. People who want to fill their body with vitamins, will definitely need advice on how to make kvass from birch sap. This gift of nature will delight unsurpassed taste and cheer up the whole day. A glass of miraculous drink per day, and your health will be one step higher. Tonic does not require financial investments, which is important in our time. Here you just have to pick up your free time to extract the sap from the birch, and while this happens, you can relax in nature, enjoying the surrounding landscape.

Useful properties of birch sap

A transparent drink that is slightly sweet in taste is actually rich in minerals, vitamins and carbohydrates. A simple-looking juice contains essential oils, saponins, tannins and many chemical elements (potassium, calcium, copper, manganese). In addition, birch sap is quite high in calories and modern nutritionists prescribe to use it as a therapeutic drug to keep your body in shape.

Along with the healing properties acting on the figure, this juice increases the efficiency of the immune system, strengthens the cardiovascular system, stimulates brain activity. As a diuretic, it relieves swelling and is therefore highly recommended for women who have just become mothers. Sweet liquid is recommended to drink to all people: adults, children, the sick and healthy.

Birch sap has a healing effect on the body, namely:

removes harmful substances from the body;
serves as a prophylactic agent;
improves digestion;
restores the acid-base environment in the stomach;
has diuretic properties.

How to get birch sap?

Extraction of sap from birch depends on warm weather. After the winter cold, when the thaw begins, you can safely go with adaptations to the nearest trees. To determine if there is sap flow along the trunk, the tip of the awl should be deepened into the tree by 5-7 centimeters. If there is a drop of liquid on the surface, then you can safely proceed to its collection, while planning how to continue to make kvass from birch sap.

Juicing is best done during the day, as at night its movement along the trunk of a tree slows down.

So, when it was determined that there is sap in the birch, you should start drilling holes. The distance from the ground should be about 50 cm. The number of holes depends on the diameter of the trunk. For example, the diameter of a birch tree is 25 cm, which means that the hole is one, and so on, incrementally, + 10 cm is + 1 hole. It is better to make cuts of the bark from the south side, there is more abundant sap flow. Insert the prepared boat-shaped groove in the hole. With one tree per day, you can pump 3 - 7 liters of fluid.

You can not drain all the liquid from the tree, otherwise it will die.

As a container for collecting, you can use a plastic bottle, it is very convenient, but it is impossible to keep the juice in it, since it loses some of its healing properties. When you come home, be sure to pour the birch nectar into glassware.

Step-by-step description of the preparation of birch sap kvass

Transparent sweet juice can be consumed not only in its pure form, but also make kvass from it. This type of drink will appeal to those who do not really like birch sap, but need its useful contents. Cool rescue in hot weather is kvass, based on birch sap. How to make kvass will help you several types of step-by-step recipes for making kvass from birch sap with the addition of other products.

Recipe for kvass from birch sap with honey

Ingredients:

birch sap - 10 l;
pressed yeast - 50 g;
- 200 g;
lemon - to taste (3 pcs).

Sourdough stages:

Recipe for kvass from birch sap with bread

Ingredients:

birch sap - 5 l;
sugar - 150 g;
bread in pieces (black) - 400 g.

Sourdough stages:

The more bread ruddy, the more kvass turns rich and dark.

Recipe for kvass from birch sap with raisins

Ingredients:

birch sap - 10 l;
sugar - 500 g;
raisins - about 50 stuff.

Sourdough stages:

Recipe for kvass from birch sap with orange

Ingredients:

birch sap - 2.5 liters;
large orange - 1 pc;
raisins, mint, lemon balm - to taste;
sugar - 250 grams;
pressed yeast - 10 grams.

Sourdough stages:

Recipe for kvass from birch sap with the addition of dried apple fruit

Ingredients:

birch sap - 5 liters;
apple dried fruits - 1 kg;
raisin - 300 g

Sourdough stages:

Useful tips on how to make kvass from birch sap:

before ferment, freshly picked birch sap with your own hands must be filtered through gauze, cotton cloth or a sieve;
tasty and healthy kvass turns out better on the juice, hand-picked;
plastic dishes are not suitable for ferment, it is better to take glass containers;
birch kvass with raisins is suitable as a base for okroshka;
kvass can be stored up to 120 days;
keep kvass in a cool place;
birch kvass is positively combined with various medicinal herbs;
it is better to prepare this refreshing drink with the addition of raisins in the spring in order to enjoy cool sips by the summer;
kvass on birch sap with honey supplement is better in summer or autumn in order to increase your immunity in winter.

After reading the recipes, enough to ask questions about how to make kvass from birch sap. It’s as simple as it’s easy to set aside a few hours for this procedure and continue to enjoy the result.

To get a closer look at the cooking process, clearly see what and why should be performed, below is a step-by-step video of birch sap brew.