Tapped my first ever Birch this evening, just thought I would share my experience. I watched this video on youtube that made it look so easy, was a pleasure to see on youtube and handy to see.
I live in Cornwall, (SouthWest, UK) and it looks like the sap is still flowing strong down here towards the end of March. I found a beautiful clean silver-birch specimen in my local park, I tapped it near enough identical to the video mentioned above. I thought the sap was very fast flowing, Im sure I would have filled my drinks bottle within an hour (roughly the same size bottle as in the vid).
It was a very chilly night tonight, and the collected sap was cold, refreshing and perfectly clear. I enjoyed the sweet taste. As soon as I took my first swig my girlfriend asked me what it tasted like, I said "mmm, you can really taste the tree!"
It was nice, I'll probably try collect some more in the next few days and maybe take a photo. Im sure I'll try the sap ice-cubes with a mint leaf (however I prefer my Bell's with coke not straight, but lets not start that whole debate eh? )
I live in Cornwall, (SouthWest, UK) and it looks like the sap is still flowing strong down here towards the end of March. I found a beautiful clean silver-birch specimen in my local park, I tapped it near enough identical to the video mentioned above. I thought the sap was very fast flowing, Im sure I would have filled my drinks bottle within an hour (roughly the same size bottle as in the vid).
It was a very chilly night tonight, and the collected sap was cold, refreshing and perfectly clear. I enjoyed the sweet taste. As soon as I took my first swig my girlfriend asked me what it tasted like, I said "mmm, you can really taste the tree!"
It was nice, I'll probably try collect some more in the next few days and maybe take a photo. Im sure I'll try the sap ice-cubes with a mint leaf (however I prefer my Bell's with coke not straight, but lets not start that whole debate eh? )
