birch sap
- Thread starter wolf
- Start date
-
Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
Any ideas what you going to do with the sap? I would like to try this in the next few weeks are there any indications that tell you when the tree is ready to tap.
Stupid question but is that a park it just kind of looks like one.
Stupid question but is that a park it just kind of looks like one.
hiya,no its not a park the trees grow on my estate,people round here know i do things like this... 
i just drink it straight from the tree as a spring tonic,i only tapped now because usually the saps around from the new to the full moon of this month...i wouldnt tap the tree when the moon is old,ie after full...hope this helps...
i just drink it straight from the tree as a spring tonic,i only tapped now because usually the saps around from the new to the full moon of this month...i wouldnt tap the tree when the moon is old,ie after full...hope this helps...
Just noticed the tapping method here with a nail in the tree,is that ok for the sap? Will it not contaminate the sap?.Have a tree here, which, somebody years ago put a sign up.When the sign came down the nails were left in.I would only assume that (correct me if im wrong) oxidization would occur over several years,maybe perhaps 
perhaps 
Looks more to me like the nail is holding the can up and the sap is dripping from the rod above the nail - looks like perspex in the photo - what's it made of? Hmm.. possibly clear tubing...SoloBoy said:
I have been reading what everyone's been doing with the collection of birch sap so i thought this year i would give it ago on the birch tree's near my mother-in-law's , but have had no joy! 
uppy_dog
What i have done is this the silver birch i have been trying to collect from have been fairly young would this make any difference??
I have drilled into the tree about a foot up from the ground I went in approx 4 cm's deep connected my tube which is a tight fit and masked around the hole and tube with tape.
Can anyone please give me some advise as i left this over 2 nights only to find nothinguppy_dog uppy_dog .
If anyone can give me advise or a location near to Maidstone down in Kent where they know sap is good that would be fantastic!
Thanks in advance for any useful advise!
uppy_dog What i have done is this the silver birch i have been trying to collect from have been fairly young would this make any difference??
I have drilled into the tree about a foot up from the ground I went in approx 4 cm's deep connected my tube which is a tight fit and masked around the hole and tube with tape.
Can anyone please give me some advise as i left this over 2 nights only to find nothing
uppy_dog uppy_dog .If anyone can give me advise or a location near to Maidstone down in Kent where they know sap is good that would be fantastic!
Thanks in advance for any useful advise!
Simon,
Try Oaken Woods round the back of Barming. It's a chestnut wood mainly (despite the name) but there's loads of birch there too and they usually give good sap. Don't know if you'll have any luck though, I haven't got round to trying yet this year.
Good luck!
Try Oaken Woods round the back of Barming. It's a chestnut wood mainly (despite the name) but there's loads of birch there too and they usually give good sap. Don't know if you'll have any luck though, I haven't got round to trying yet this year.
Good luck!
I'll give it a go at barming 
Simon1,
I tapped our silver birch a couple of years back, around this time of year i guess, and at the time i did guess! you can't not notice it when it pours from the bark. I don't think the fact that yours is young should affect whether it does or doesn't, maybe how much though. At a wild guess again, i'd say you could be too early. i haven't seen birch for a few weeks, living in the city as i do, so am detached from the wild, but what are the leaves doing? if they are shooting through it should be about the right time, the time at which they grow the fastest and have the most amount of sap supplied to them, when they stop growing so fast then maybe that is the time at which sap flow slows, and if there are not many leaves shooting through then perhaps it has not begun sufficiently. All this is conjecture on my part however.
I would have thought 4cm is much deeper than the radius at which the sap flows. is it not just beneath the bark in the sapwood region? this is a genuine question, i don't know.
When i got the sap, i wanted to do something interesting, instead of just drinking it like i should have! so i boiled it down to a rather woody, burnt sugar, so that was disapointing. any ideas on successful birch sap reducing people? any help much appreciated.
cheers,
-ian
I tapped our silver birch a couple of years back, around this time of year i guess, and at the time i did guess! you can't not notice it when it pours from the bark. I don't think the fact that yours is young should affect whether it does or doesn't, maybe how much though. At a wild guess again, i'd say you could be too early. i haven't seen birch for a few weeks, living in the city as i do, so am detached from the wild, but what are the leaves doing? if they are shooting through it should be about the right time, the time at which they grow the fastest and have the most amount of sap supplied to them, when they stop growing so fast then maybe that is the time at which sap flow slows, and if there are not many leaves shooting through then perhaps it has not begun sufficiently. All this is conjecture on my part however.
I would have thought 4cm is much deeper than the radius at which the sap flows. is it not just beneath the bark in the sapwood region? this is a genuine question, i don't know.
When i got the sap, i wanted to do something interesting, instead of just drinking it like i should have! so i boiled it down to a rather woody, burnt sugar, so that was disapointing. any ideas on successful birch sap reducing people? any help much appreciated.
cheers,
-ian
Simon1 said:I have been reading what everyone's been doing with the collection of birch sap so i thought this year i would give it ago on the birch tree's near my mother-in-law's , but have had no joy!
What i have done is this the silver birch i have been trying to collect from have been fairly young would this make any difference??
I have drilled into the tree about a foot up from the ground I went in approx 4 cm's deep connected my tube which is a tight fit and masked around the hole and tube with tape.
Can anyone please give me some advise as i left this over 2 nights only to find nothing
If anyone can give me advise or a location near to Maidstone down in Kent where they know sap is good that would be fantastic!
Thanks in advance for any useful advise!
Could it be that you've chosen the right time, but not the right technique? I would assume that you need only half a tube. If you fill the hole completely and it's a tight fit, I think your birch sap has no way 'in' the tube.
I must say I have no experience either, and no birch tree 'in the family' that I can try on.
Bob
Nothing here either !! Can anybody guess at how long from the size of these buds
http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf00840no.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf00853gf.jpg
Please excuse quality
http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf00840no.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf00853gf.jpg
Please excuse quality
Just thought I would have a check of a tree on the way home, even though it's a dull day - a steady drip started so I'll be back tomorrow with a bottle!
For all you city dwellers (like me ) here's the solution
[/URL][/IMG]
One liter of birch sap (slightly sweetened), packed in tetrapack, straight from Russia (available in a Brussels supermarket)
) here's the solution
One liter of birch sap (slightly sweetened), packed in tetrapack, straight from Russia (available in a Brussels supermarket)
SoloBoy said:Nothing here either !! Can anybody guess at how long from the size of these buds
http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf00840no.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf00853gf.jpg
Please excuse quality
I would say a few weeks. Lad
