How to make a harvesting of birch sap
Products
Birch sap - 1 liter
Sugar - 50-125 grams (5 rounded tablespoons)
Citric acid - 5 grams
How to cook birch sap
1. Pour juice into a jar, add sugar.
2. Cover the pan with a towel at least as high as a can.
3. Put a jar of juice on a towel and fill it with water: the water level in the pot should be the same as in the jar (to avoid bursting).
4. Cover the juice with a loose lid.
5. Boil water in a saucepan over low heat.
6. Keep the jar in boiling water for 15 minutes - the juice should give steam, but not boil.
7. Close the jar tightly with a lid, cool and remove from the water.
Your birch sap is brewed!
How to cook birch sap
ProductsBirch sap - 3 liters
How to cook birch sap
1. Pour 1 liter of birch sap into a saucepan and put on a low heat.
2. When the juice boils down two-thirds and acquires the consistency of liquid honey, pour in another liter of juice; boil the juice again, then add the last part of the juice and boil again.
3. When boiling birch sap, foam forms - it must be removed.
Note
When cooking birch sap, you can use a sugar meter. If the sugar meter determines the sugar content in boiled birch sap 60-70%, then the birch syrup is ready. Before rolling, pass the syrup through a double cheesecloth and bottle. Store birch syrup in a cool place for up to 2 years. You can serve birch sap by diluting with water, other juices or fruit drinks.
Fusofacts
- Birch sap harvest season - every spring, from late March to late April. An indicator of the readiness of birches to collect sap is swelling (but not blooming) of the buds. To make sure that you can prepare the tools for collection, you can pierce the birch bark 5 centimeters deep - a drop of juice should appear.- For tasty juice, you need the right choose a place to grow trees... It is supposed to collect birch sap in proven places, clean, far from cities and roads. Young trees are not suitable for sap harvesting - they are too thin for drilling and too “green” for flavoring and nutritious drinking.
- To collect birch sap, you need to make a 5-10 mm hole in the birch with a depth of 3-4 centimeters. The height of the hole is 30-40 centimeters from the ground. Ideally, drill through the wood. As a last resort, use an ax, but keep in mind that the tree may die, but the drill will heal with practically no side effects. A long nail can also be used. The birch should be drilled either deeply or slightly to the side in order to collect several juice "veins" at once.
- As a straw, you can use regular long straws for drinks "corner" or rubber straws from a dropper. It is important that the tubes are along the radius of the drill. All means of extracting juice must be disinfected in advance. After the holes have been made, insert a tube into each and slightly press it in. Direct the tube into the bottle and secure the bottle with tape or rope. To get the juice faster, use trees with a diameter of 30 cm or more - then you can make 2-3 holes nearby and send the tubes from all to 1 jar.
- To protect the juice from rain, debris and insects, you can make a hole in a plastic bottle and insert a straw directly into this hole, then screw the bottle cap loosely so that air can escape. For glass jars, you can use nylon caps, they are also convenient to drill.
- A good birch will give 1 liter of juice in 10-15 minutes.
- If a nail is used as a hole tool, it is better to hammer it with pliers rather than a hammer. Firstly, the nail can be removed with pliers, and secondly, the pliers are easier. It is better to take plastic bottles.
- The best time to start collecting juice is in the afternoon and early evening.
- You should note in advance the scheme of trees from which the sap is collected. If you forget to remove the sap collection tools from the birch, it will inevitably die.
- To reduce the effects of a wound on a birch, you can hammer a wooden plug into the hole or put wax.
- You can store fresh birch sap for 1-2 days in the refrigerator.
- After collecting the juice, it must be filtered to remove forest debris and insects.