A very nice drink of water...from a birch!!!

[bambodoggy]

Hey All,

Thought some of you might be interested to hear this...

I was out almost all day Sat in my local woods.... found my debris shelter collapsed and was chuffed it was the crossbar that had snapped with the weight rather than my makeshift green bracken stalk lashings (green bracken stalks....shows how long it's been up ) so they do last pretty well.

Anyway, I dismantled the shelter once I'd got the small fire going (by bow drill thanks to JP's magic wood... ). Then I carved a spoon, then a bit more and now I have a spoon with a hole in it! lol I then carved another spoon and then sat and chilled for a while.
The site I use is in a birch sapling grove and is a wonderful place to sit and chill and very comfy as most of the floor is covered in spag-moss. It's a fairly damp place but certainly not water logged or boggy.

Anyway, I decided to work on my trapping skills and set to work to make a pressure release treadle spring trap thingy (not important what I was making....oh and it worked a dream too...would have taken anything from a bunny to a small deer about 8 foot up into the trees and held it there ): )

I used a birch sapling for the spring....and it turned out to actually be a spring! It was about tennis ball diametre at the base and I climbed up it hand over hand to bend it and by the time I got the tip to the floor I was standing with it tucked under my armpit. I used my hand axe to lop the top off. I did it with one diagonal cut that went straight through (see...my Gerber is good..lol) and then tied a bit of paracord on it then tied that to a lower stump to hold it while I got the rest of the trap ready.

Now...here's the interesting bit bearing in mind it's Feb and the sap isn't rising yet and that the ground was damp but not boggy or waterlogged. When I went back to use the spring I found that clear fresh water was running out of the cut end of the sapling like a tap! I grabbed my folding swedish cup and collected a whole cupful in about 2 to 3 minutes....it was cold and very refreshing. There are no primary water sources on the land I use, no rivers, streams or spring....just the odd dirty puddle so this was a revelation for me!

I'm not suggesting everyone goes out hacking the tops off birch saplings and bending them over but if push came to shove.....what an easy way to get clean fresh water!!!! Yippy! :wave:

So....just thought I'd let you all know.....anyone else ever tried this or similar?

It reminded me of cutting vines to get at the water in them in the jungle....lol...my own little jungle in Surrey! :rolmao:

 

[shinobi]

I tap birch trees every February to make birch sap wine. Fantastic stuff.

As you mentioned, it shouldn't be done to small trees unless necessary. The trees need this for a reason. As a guide, I won't tap a tree if I can wrap my arms around the trunk and my fingers can touch each other. Also, it is important not to tap the tree once the buds get larger than a squirrels thumb. (getting a squirrel to give you a thumbs up is the hard part !!!)
I can get a gallon from one tree in under 24 hours. Like you said, it's like turning a tap on ): Oh and remember to close the hole with a wooden plug or lump of clay.

cheers,

Martin

 

[bambodoggy]

Yer, I've tapped them before but not this early and not by lopping the top off!!!!!

As I said, not the most enviromentally friendly way but to be fair the grove does need thinning out anyway...

 

[shinobi]

I was planning on going out this week on my days off to get my sap, but I'm not sure about collecting a block of ice or losing my demi-john in the snow if we get the snow they're promising. ):

Martin

 

[damh_bard]

Mmmm, Birch sap wine..... ):
I've still got a bottle left over from the sap we collected back in 97! Have you noticed that it can either be still or fizzy depending on when you open the bottle? If you open it when the sap's rising, there's a good chace it'll be sparkling wine. It's as if the sap has a memory. Very funky.
Peace
Damh

 

[shinobi]

Mmmm, Birch sap wine..... ):
I've still got a bottle left over from the sap we collected back in 97! Have you noticed that it can either be still or fizzy depending on when you open the bottle? If you open it when the sap's rising, there's a good chace it'll be sparkling wine. It's as if the sap has a memory. Very funky.
Peace
Damh

How've you managed to keep a bottle from 97 !!! Mine didn't make it to 98 :biggthump

BTW, do you still know that chap from the Warninglid estate?

cheers,

Martin

 

[bambodoggy]

What's your method/ingredience for making the wine then Martin....?

I might have a go if it's not too much hard work.... ):

 

[shinobi]

There are two good sources for this;

First Steps in winemaking (The Bible for winemakers !!)

Wild food You MUST own this book anyway ):

I've tried both and had good results from both but the Wild food version is written from a more "Bushcrafty" angle. If you cannot get hold of either of these, I can copy the recipe up here for you.

cheers,

Martin

 

[greg2935]

Do you have to add much sugar to the sap to make wine? Just wondering how sweet it is?

Greg

 

[shinobi]

Do you have to add much sugar to the sap to make wine? Just wondering how sweet it is?

As Phil will tell you, it doesn't taste sweet from the tree.
you need to add 1kg of sugar to 1gallon of sap. This is the usual amount for sap wines. You would get a sweeter sap if you tap sycamore or maple though.

Cheers,

Martin

 

[bambodoggy]

As Phil will tell you, it doesn't taste sweet from the tree.
you need to add 1kg of sugar to 1gallon of sap. This is the usual amount for sap wines. You would get a sweeter sap if you tap sycamore or maple though.

Cheers,

Martin

Yep...I'll second that....had I not "known" it was sap I'd have just said it was pure water....it was crystal clear and fresh tasting but tasted only of water....very refreshing actually.... I used the small bottle of coke i had to douse the fire in the end and just drank the sap while I was there, I figured that seeing as I'd trashed that tree I might as well make as much use of it as I could.....

Martin, I've got "Food for Free"....is that the book you mean?

Cheers,

Phil.

 

[shinobi]

Martin, I've got "Food for Free"....is that the book you mean?

Nope. The second link in the post above is called "Wild food" by Roger Phillips. it's a fantastic A4 sized book with lovely photo's. It covers identification, folklore and recipes as well. Perfect !!

Cheers,

Martin

 

[arctic hobo]

Yep...I'll second that....had I not "known" it was sap I'd have just said it was pure water....it was crystal clear and fresh tasting but tasted only of water.

Going on my biological knowledge that would be exactly what it would have been - pure water with nothing in it.

 

[bambodoggy]

It certainly tasted like pure water.....but it had to have been sap surely...???

Where's Jak when you need him? Jak? ? ? What was I drinking please? ? ? :?:

 

[arctic hobo]

The two travel in different ways. There is a part of the plant that transports only water, and another that takes sugars etc in solution - when aphids have been feeding on this you will notice leaves feel sticky. This is the sugars. It depends where the cut was, all the way through and it'd be a mixture, but a ring around and you'll only get one type.

 

[bambodoggy]

It was a birch....there wasn't any leaves on it at this time of year!!!!

The top was bent over and about an inch in diameter....I took one swip with my Gerber hand axe and went straight through at about 45 degrees....then left it bent down and tied to another tree....the bark was all dry so it wasn't just water running down the outside. The water was collecting on the flat cut face of the sapling and then running off at the tip.....straight into my mouth to begin with and then into a cup.....

Does that help explain?

 

[spamel]

Water travels up a tree through capillary action. Maybe that's what happened?

 

[Walkabout]

It may be the bending thats squeezing the water out of the trunk. Or it may be acting similarly to a siphon because the end was lowered. I was always told that birch sap was sugary and it always tasted plain to me. It must be because I hit the xylem (water carrying parts) rather than the phloem (the sugar carrying parts)

 

[arctic hobo]

Ok I think I have sorted in my head what it is. If you ring a tree, you will get the phloem, which is the sap and has things in solution. This oozes out quite slowly. If you cut all the way through (phloem is on the outside of the plant) you will cut the xylem which has pure water in it. I'm fairly sure... er... yes. H'm.

 

[JimH]

The two travel in different ways. There is a part of the plant that transports only water, and another that takes sugars etc in solution - when aphids have been feeding on this you will notice leaves feel sticky. This is the sugars. It depends where the cut was, all the way through and it'd be a mixture, but a ring around and you'll only get one type.

Bear in mind, too, that at this time of year, the sugar level in the sap would be lower, as no leaves = no photosynthesis = no sugars apart from stored stuff.

Jim.