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Dreamwalker.

drinking Silver birch sap.....4 week window now!......

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Betula pendula

Has anyone tried silver birch sap?............I totally recommned it........this is the 2nd season I have partaken in this ancient food source...............its late spring here in the fallen city............temperate..............and for those of similar lattitude you have but a 4 week window...really easy to do if you have some trees at least 150mm in diameter ..............cut the end of a lower thin branch so that its a tigthish fit into a cleaned coloured bottle ...eg wine bottle..........cover the top with some plastic to stop the rain and insects getting in...bend the branch down ...so the sap drips into the bottle...leave it there.. in shade.....and vist it each morning for an incredibly refreshing tonic..................its cool 99% pure filtered H2O....1% sugars and antioxidents....a small good tree will start giving you 1/4 cup a day ....in a few weeks up to 1 cup per day....as summer comes its becomes bitter................I have 20 odd trees ......some give nothing..........some give a little ...others are really generous....(like people huh?)...................feel free to ask any questions........

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^nice thread

should make a liquer or something with it.

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Oh that's cool. If you're in NZ, you might want to try the same thing with the native supplejack - apparently a similar thing.

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I'm surprised it's only 1% sugars, it tastes quite sweet. Haven't tried refining it yet, but if you live in an area with thick birch growth you could collect it and boil it down to a syrup and use as a sugar/honey/agave/maple replacement.

While you're at it looking for birches you might keep an eye out for chaga and (if you're more scientifically minded than me) give some solid info in http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=33848&hl=chaga this thread.

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I'm keen to try it, are there any other trees that you harvest in this way?

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I've read that poplar, alder, possibly ash and walnut and a few others (obviously sugar maple)............but your'd have to double check..search....before you give them a try :- )

I have tried some of my alder and ash trees....but they were pretty dry...not sap givers............the canadians apparently had a bad maple syrup season ...global warming? too warm?....anyway some farmers tapped their birches as an alternative for income....I guess they are not so heat sensitive..........a traditional thing...........but you need bucket loads of maple sap to boil down into syrup.........and considerably more bucket loads of birch sap to get the equivlent in syrup..................I tried boiling down a good pot full last season............and even when it was reduced to a few teaspoons after hours of boiling..............it was still a long way from being that sweet maple syrup.............I just enjoy drinking it straight first thing in the cool of the morning..........its pure nectar......well 1% anyway :- ) I'll see if I can post a pic................there is a recipe for making alcohol from it ...maybe just leaving it in the sun, or not rinseing your collecting bottles regularly....your'd need to search......

for anyone trying birch sap........ cut 1-2 mm off the end of the branch every 2nd day ....just to keep the sap flowing freely

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I'm keen to try it, are there any other trees that you harvest in this way?

Plenty of Silver Birch in Oz

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You are lucky. if i had a birch tree near me, i would make some birch beer.

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one note.......I've noticed on one tree that as the lower brunch dried up dispite repeated cuttings .........that higher branches yeilded a good sap flow..............and a good way to test if its worth saping is to cut branches wait a few minutes to see if it drips..if it drips then stick a bottle on the end..............some trees just won't give sap...........don't know why.......maybe they are best havested by the tradition bark cutting Canadian maple syrup method???

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just a head ups....I was a bit late last season,,,I find going around and cutting a finger size branch off at the bottom of the trees, about 200mm out from the trunk, and then waiting a few minutes, if you see a drop of sap forming, then its flowing ...stick a wine bottle on it, wrap some plastic around the top and empty/drink each day...clean every several days ...re-cut the branch if it dries up,,,(may need to tie branch to downward flowing direction.)

I have 1 of 20 that's just started flowing....

Flow seems to begin in sputters...depending on if its warm/sunny (then flow is good)... from July to September..September (now I'm getting about 1/2 cup from some trees & just dribbles from others..per day...)

11th sept. full flow ...some trees producing 1 cup per day...18c day temp...night ~3c...height of branch not a factor....1st blue bells out...

Edited by Dreamwalker.
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I've been thinking about trying this for years but never got round to it. Right now I would need to try a tree in a public park or whotnot, could be tampered with I Guess. I'll have to wait till I get my own place again. Really interesting topic Dreamwalker. Taking the sap from a branch looks a lot less fiddly than the conventional method of tapping it from the trunk.

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