hi

any body heard of birch sap as a tonic , from the tree that gave us aspirin there is a seasonal tonic thats freeif your able ,in early spring

you will need

one large silver birch tree growing in the woods
one hand held bit and brace
one 3/4 wood drill
one pruning saw
3 feet of plastic hose food grade 3/4 OD
clean muslin cloth
blue tac or putty
duck tape
one 1 gallon food grade container with lid
bowie knife
one mallet
and nap sack to put it all in

on a nice spring day find your tree ( give it a optional )

drill a hole 1 and 1/2 feet up the trunk 4 inches deep

push in tube about a inch and a half and seal with blue
tack

tape muslin to top of container lose also tape end of tube so sap drips through cloth position container so sap will trickle down into it loosely tape lid on to keep rain out

give it a optional )
return same time next day, the container should now be full

remove tube and muslin and taste your tree juice put the lid on to carry home

remove hose and blue tac

IMPORTANT

you must now plug the hole or your friendly tree may die

cut a live branch slightly bigger than the hole in the tree about 8 inches long with your pruning saw, remove bark and whittle down with your knife, three and a half inches so its a tight fit in the hole ,then hammer it with the mallet, into the hole the full 4 inches and trim it of flush with the trunk with the pruning saw
job done

give it a and say thanks optional

now whats the point in all this effort

Birch sap is the sap extracted from a birch tree, such as a North American Sweet Birch or a Silver Birch. The sap is often a slightly sweet, thin syrupy-watery liquid. The tree sap contains sugars (namely xylitol), proteins, amino acids, and enzymes.

Birch sap must be collected during a specific time of the year, depending on the species and geography, at the break of winter and spring when the sap moves intensively, typically between the first thaws and the start of bud development. The collected sap can be drunk as a tonic and it is a traditional beverage in Belarus (Belarusian: Бярозавы сок / biarozavy sok), Poland (Polish: Oskoła), Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and elsewhere in Northern Europe as well as parts of northern China.

Birch sap collection is done by tying a bottle to the tree, drilling a hole into its trunk and leading the sap to the bottle by a plastic tube. A small birch (trunk diameter about 15 cm) can produce up to 5 liters of sap per day, a larger tree (diameter 30 cm) up to 15 liters per day. Birch sap has to be collected in early Spring before any green leaves have appeared, as in late Spring it becomes bitter. The collection period is only about a month per year. The price of birch sap is correspondingly high in some countries, e.g. in Japan reaching up to 50 Euro per liter.

Birch sap may be consumed both fresh and naturally fermented. It is a very refreshing drink.

Birch sap can also be used as an ingredient in food or drinks, such as birch beer or wintergreen flavored candy.

Concentrated birch sap is used to make birch syrup, a very expensive type of syrup mainly made from paper birch in Alaska, and from several species in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. In Russia this tonic is used as a traditional herbal medicine functioning as antiseptic, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-itching treatment.

Fresh birch sap is highly perishable; even if refrigerated, it is stable for only up to 2-5 days. Shelf life can be prolonged by freezing or pasteurization. However pasteurization destroys some ingredients and can alter the taste of the product. Frozen birch sap is fairly stable.

you can also make BEER and WINE also there is some research that suggests anti cancer agents

ENJOY

That is interesting...

However, I thought aspirin (salicylates) came from willow bark?

So I looked it up for more information:
from http://www.theheartofnewengland.com/...s-Tapping.html

Looks like alot of labor intensive effort is needed for it though.

sorry mrs D you are right I get confused some times TBI there is a substance and I mixed it up it is

Birch-tar or birch-pitch is a substance (liquid when heated) derived from the dry distillation of the wood of the birch. It is therefore pyroligneous.

Birch-tar was used widely as an adhesive as early as the late Paleolithic or early Mesolithic era. It has also been used as a disinfectant, in leather dressing, and in medicine.

It is compounded of guaiacol, phenols, cresol, xylenol, and creosol.

such a useful tree it is a real shame, we have lost so much of our Tree lore the Romans wiped out our shamans,the emperor Claudius committed genocide in the battle for the isle of Anglesea (some say Avalon ) which inflicted a kind of cultural TBI on the Britons , because of the bardic tradition , of verbal retention of knowledge much was lost in that act , I found an interesting article on the bardsey or ( bard say ) apple tree http://www.bardseyapple.co.uk/
an apple a day keeps the doctor away . as the old saying go,s

there is not much that is free in our money driven world , to be out in the woods in spring lifts the spirit, we can gain much for a little effort and connect with what we put in to our body's
hope some of you guys give it a go this spring

thanks for reading

hmm well i heard of pycogenol from pine bark extract but this is different, dont think i would ever desiere a need to have some unless i was in europe