When is the best time to collect birch sap

Birch sap is a very useful natural drink, which is endowed with a mass of healing properties and extremely beneficial effect on the human body. This is the so-called elixir of beauty, health, vigor and strength. That's because it contains a lot of nutrients, 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

The composition of birch sap is fructose, glucose, sucrose, organic acids, enzymes and substances that have high antimicrobial activity (phytoncides), as well as potassium, iron, manganese, calcium, sodium, magnesium, copper, which the body, which is weakened by the spring avitaminosis, requires.

Birch sap is endowed with a huge amount useful properties:

• Perfectly strengthens the immune system.
• Normalizes the heart.
• It has an anti-inflammatory effect on the body.
• It improves metabolism and is very useful for the brain.
• Tones, invigorates and charges the body with energy.
• Just one glass of drink per day will relieve you from drowsiness, fatigue and depression.
• The drink is called one of the best dietary and tonic 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 excretion of uric acid and enhances diuresis.
• Useful for lung diseases, bronchitis, tuberculosis, sore throat, cough.
• Relieve from headaches and migraines.
• Useful in sexually transmitted diseases.
• It is recommended to take the drink with 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 case of chronic rhinitis, it is recommended to take one glass of fresh birch sap every morning.
• Endowed with anthelmintic, anti-tumor and diuretic action.
• It is useful to wipe the skin with acne, eczema, psoriasis, furunculosis, neurodermatitis, fungal diseases, poorly healing wounds,

Birch sap is very widely used and cosmetology:

• Perfectly cleanses and refreshes the skin, and for this it is enough just to wash them in the morning.
• Used to moisturize and cleanse dry skin.

• Used for shampooing - to strengthen the hair, their rapid growth, giving softness and shine to the hair; used to fight dandruff.
• You can still do anti-cellulite wraps.

If we talk about harm, then birch sap can cause harm only if it was collected in polluted places and if a person is allergic to birch pollen. Contraindicated in people suffering from stomach ulcers.

How to determine the collection time

Harvesting 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 - the end of April.

You can check whether it is time to collect and harvest, using a thin awl. It is necessary to go into the forest and make a puncture with this awl in a birch. If the juice has already gone, then a drop will immediately appear in the puncture site. This will mean that you can begin collecting and harvesting.

Is it possible to collect birch sap in urban areas

Answering the question whether it is possible to collect juice in the city, we will immediately caution: no, don't even think about it. It is necessary to collect away from large cities, from roads, from large factories and polluted places, since wood can absorb all harmful substances and vehicle exhaust gases from the environment.Juice, which will be collected from such trees, not only will not bring any benefit, but it can also harm health.

The best places to collect

To get really useful juice, the place of gathering it must be chosen very carefully. It is best to collect it in environmentally friendly 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:

• You cannot use young trees for gathering, only mature trees that have a diameter of 20 cm. If you collect sap from young trees, you can destroy them, because during the period of tree growth, it is necessary for him to do it himself.
• Use a drill with a 5-10 mm drill to assemble. This hole grows in the trunk almost without a trace.

• It is not necessary to make a hole that is too deep in the trunk of the tree, because the juice mainly goes in the surface layer between the bark and wood. It will be enough 2-3 cm deep.
• The best time to collect is the time interval between 10:00 and 18:00, then the juice flows most intensively.
• Do not try to drain all the sap from one tree, so you can destroy it. It would be better to bypass five to ten trees and drain one liter per 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, cover with moss, or drive a wooden plug to prevent bacteria from entering the trunk.

As for the fact, how get birch sap:

1. Choose a birch with a well-developed crown with a diameter of more than 20-30 cm.
2. Carefully make a hole in the trunk at a distance of 20 cm from the ground.
3. Attach a tray of birch bark or some other semicircular device into which the juice will flow into the hole made under it.
4. Under the groove, place a jar, bottle or bag, 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 for every ten centimeters, one more hole. But the main thing is not to overdo it with the holes, because the more a tree is injured, the more difficult it will be to heal its wounds.

Storage methods, we study recipes

It is best to use fresh juice, while boiling some of its properties are lost. But how much 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 various. You can make kvass, wine, syrup, balsam, various beverages from it, or preserve.

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 the lids.

Birch syrup. Evaporate the juice to a yellow-white color, until it becomes viscous, and the consistency will resemble honey. The concentration of sugar in the syrup is 60-70%.

Birch wine. At 10 liters of birch sap, you need to take 1 kg of sugar, two peel of two lemons, two bottles of white grape wine, yeast.Boil juice with sugar over high heat until about eight liters of liquid remain; then remove it from the heat, add the peel and white wine, mix everything well and allow the mixture to cool. Add 0.5 tablespoon of yeast and incubate for four days. After four days, pour everything into bottles, seal the bottles and place in a dark, cold place for a month.

Kvass:

• For 10 liters of sirya need 50 g of yeast. It must be boiled to evaporate some water, cool, add yeast and let it wander for a few days, then pour the kvass into bottles, close and put it 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. All this is mixed, bottled and left in a cold dark place.
• Pour the birch sap into an oak barrel, put a canvas sack with burnt rye bread crusts on a rope, and two days later put oak bark, berries, or cherry leaves or dill stalks in a barrel. In two weeks, the brew will be ready.

The drink is very pleasant to taste on its own, but you can add juice of various berries (lingonberries, mountain ash, blueberries, currants), or insist on different herbs (chamomile, thyme, cumin, linden flowers, rosehips) in a jar covered with gauze , about two weeks.You can also add infusions of mint, St. John's wort, lemon balm, pine needles.

Birch sap is the most useful remedy for beriberi and mild colds, it is an indispensable aid in healing the body and strengthening immunity. If you like this drink, be sure to remember how to collect it and keep it.