Tapping Birch: Collecting Birch Sap For Mineral Water, Wine, Beer, Vinegar and Syrup
Tapping Birch: Collecting Birch Sap For Mineral Water, Wine, Beer, Vinegar and Syrup
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11/6/14 1:25 PM
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Tapping Birch: Collecting birch sap for mineral water, wine, beer,
vinegar and syrup
Written by Fergus Drennan on March 23, 2013 8 Comments
The Sap is Rising
Collecting birch sap for mineral water, wine, beer, vinegar and syrup
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Tapping Birch: Collecting birch sap for mineral water, wine, beer, vinegar and syrup | Fergus The Forager
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With the drill bit angled about 30 up from the horizontal (although straight in is fine too), drill a clean hole about 3-4 cms deep into the tree. Blow
out bits of debris (close your eyes!). Liquid should drip from the hole within 10-20 seconds at the rate of 4 or more drops per second at the peak of
sap flow. If not, hammer in a wooden bung or piece of clay and try another tree. Push one end of the plastic tubing 1-2 cms into the hole so that it is
held firmly in place. Place the other end into the collecting bottle, far enough in so that it cant slip out. Gently pack tissue or cotton wool around the
tube at the neck end of the bottle, allowing the air to escape as the bottle fills with sap and to prevent insects from getting in (you can just cut or melt
holes into the top of plastic lids but make sure it isnt a completely tight fit as you need to allow air to escape from the bottle as it fills up). Scoop
out a handful or two of soil at the base of the tree and place the bottle in the shallow hole created to prevent it falling over. As a precaution, to
prevent any leakage, you can roll out and press a small piece of plasticine or clay around the tube to make a perfect seal with the tree trunk. Leave
for 12-48 hours, after which time the bottle will most likely be brimming with sap. Alternatively, you can use a small length of tubing or a small
elder stick after clearing out the soft central pith, and allow the sap to drip freely into a collecting vessel such as a demijohn preferably using a
muslin covered funnel to direct the liquid and prevent insects falling in (or use a maple tap). In woods where there are wood ants, the ants will
amass around any exposed sap. Finally, plug up the hole to prevent infection of the tree, particularly from fungal spores. Hammer in a hard wood
bung, firm piece of cork cut to size, some clay or, as a temporary measure, a piece of plasticine. Whatever I use, I always line it with fresh cherry
resin. Resin production is a trees healing response to mechanical damage so is worth using. It also makes for a really good seal. I take no more than
about 4 litres per tree, and only tap the same tree on alternate years. Nevertheless, some people will tap continuously from one tree throughout its
entire period of sap flow, but only return to that tree every 4-5 years; others take 2 litres and return every year to the same trees.
A great drill, but often hard to see when I put it down among the forest floor leaves!
Unless you intend to use the sap for cooking or drinking immediately, refrigerate and use within 2-3 days. If you decide to tap one tree throughout
its sap rise, empty out the collecting bottle within 48 hours (at the latest after 24 hrs if the temp is above 10 C) of tapping or when your collecting
bottle is full whichever occurs first. If you leave the container over 2 days before collecting, the natural yeasts present may already have stated to
ferment the sap, using up what little sugar there is, giving rise to off flavours these become intensified when reduced down during syrup
production and are to be avoided. Note: if you want to transport large quantities of sap, I recommend scrounging several of those large 18 L
capacity mineral water bottles seen in offices. These are also excellent for wine making.
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Tapping Birch: Collecting birch sap for mineral water, wine, beer, vinegar and syrup | Fergus The Forager
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Boil the sap until it is thick and dark, barely simmering at the final stages to prevent the disaster of burning. Indeed, at the latter stages the pan
should be just on hot embers no direct flame). Indeed, once the volume of sap is reduced from 95 to about 5 litres, I usually transfer the syrup to
a new pan and place indoors on the hob at the lowest flame setting not even simmering. Also, unless you want to deep steam clean your kitchen or
make the wallpaper peel off, this is definitely a job to do most of outside. Alternatively, ask a friendly baker if you can place a large metal tray of
sap on top of his bread oven to slowly evaporate. Taste repeatedly as you concentrate the sap to reach your required degree of sweetness. It is
inevitable that the sugars will partially caramelize, that however is just an integral part of the flavour (in the absence of expensive industrial
machinery to produce the syrup using reverse osmosis). If concerned about burning there is no need to reduce 95 L sap to 1 L of syrup. The ratio of
50:1 also makes for a gorgeous but lighter and runnier golden brown syrup.
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Nevertheless, if syrup making still seems too much trouble use the sap to make a lovely refreshing wine instead. Its easy and is definitely not a
second best alternative. Start by making a high alcohol tolerant wine yeast starter culture. For this, simply follow the instructions on a packet of
wine yeast usually this involves adding a teaspoon of yeast and sugar to about 3 fl oz of boiled and cooled water that is then shaking in a clean
sterilized bottle. The top is loosely fitted on and the bottle left in a warm place for about four hours or until the yeast becomes active youll notice
bubbles rising and a little froth forming on top. Next, sterilize 2 demijohns, 2 rubber bungs, 2 air-locks and 1 plastic funnel the products used for
cleaning babies bottles are fine for this purpose. Put 8 pints of sap and 1kg of sugar into a large pan and bring to the boil stirring in all the sugar.
Add the juice of 1 lemon and 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Empty and rinse the sterilized demijohns with boiled (but cooled slightly) water. Divide
the sap equally between the 2 demijohns, pouring in using the sterilized plastic funnel. Allow to become luke warm before adding the yeast starter
culture and fit bungs and air-locks. Leave in an airing cupboard for 5 days before transferring all the sap into just one of the demijohns. Ferment
until no bubbles appear in the air-lock (2-3 months).
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Top side
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The other day I collected a whole sac full of these. I dried them for future use in The Foraged Book Project for making paper for that book, scraping
off the brown outer layer once they were dry.
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Tapping Birch: Collecting birch sap for mineral water, wine, beer, vinegar and syrup | Fergus The Forager
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Website: http://www.wildmanwildfood.co.uk/index.html
Blog: http://wildmanwildfood.blogspot.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fergustheforage
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fergus.drennan
8 Comments on "Tapping Birch: Collecting birch sap for mineral water, wine, beer, vinegar and syrup"
1. mousiemarc says: March 24, 2013 at 4:42 am Reply
That is really cool. I live in oregon in the united states. Doubt Ill get to this anytime soon with two young ones. But it looks really fun.
2. velvetkatze says: March 24, 2013 at 3:03 pm Reply
Wow, this brings me back to my childhood it used to be very popular in Russia and was sold in 3L jars in the shops Loved it!
3. velvetkatze says: March 24, 2013 at 3:09 pm Reply
hi
I like your blog a lot, but I cannot find a way of following your new posts usually you can submit your email somewhere on the blog and it
sends you automatic updates when something new comes up, but I cannot find how to do it on yours can you give me a hint please? Thanks
Katja
4. Fergus says: March 25, 2013 at 12:32 pm Reply
@mousiemarc. Dont let two young ones stop you. I actuallu initially set up all the bottles on 17 trees with my friend. He had his 3 month old
baby on his back in a pouch and his 4 year old daughter helped me drill and seal the holes while asking lots of questions!
@velvetkatze. Was that 3L of sap or syrup?
I wish I knew how to set up automatic updates, unfortunately I only ever know how to do the most basic stuff on blogs and whatnot..
5. Ramona Ethier says: September 22, 2013 at 8:31 am Reply
Enjoyed your post, I will have to try this in the spring. I really like your basket. Perhaps you could do a video on how to make baskets,
including collection of materials for basket making. I also appreciate the tips on protecting the tree, and repairing redients the damage done
from drilling for sap. Looking forward to your book.
6. tom polinard says: June 24, 2014 at 3:08 am Reply
This June i visited Crystal Palace Park in London. There I discovered an
Australian with a basket of mushrooms he had harvested in the park.
His plan was to dry them and use them in a salad. He enjoys urban,
and wild foraging.
Appreciate your article on birch syrup. In North America the natives
taught the Europeans to tap maple trees in New England and Canada.
Maple syrup is very healthy and popular in North America.
There is some interest in N. America in harvesting birch sap.
7. Miles Davies says: August 21, 2014 at 9:24 pm Reply
Great Website BTW. Im definately trying this next year. Got plenty of containers at the ready. Your basket of Scarlet Elf Cups is for what?
Eating? I have been trying to find out if they are edible for years, but most books say not, or that no-one has tried. I found an article that
suggested they were eaten in Victorian times, but used more for table decoration. If they are edible please confirm. I tried to do a search on
your website for Scarlet Elf Cups but nothing showed up. Thanks.
8. oawritingspoemspaintings says: September 21, 2014 at 9:43 am Reply
Glad to have found such an educative blog!
Would you know how I follow it?
Keep up the good work, the world needs it.
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March 23, 2013, 8 Comments
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