The content of the article
With the arrival of spring, the birch sap begins to gather - an incredibly healthy drink that can improve health and strengthen the immune system. In the villages, this period was considered the most important, because the juice under the bark of the tree does not flow for a long time, only about a month. During this time, people try to get drunk on juice and recharge their batteries. But to get all the useful properties, the juice must be properly collected. In this process, it is important not only to get healing liquid, but also to protect the tree as much as possible.
The benefits of birch sap
In appearance, birch sap is ordinary water - without any special smell and color. If you leave the juice warm for a while, it will begin to ferment and deteriorate. This means that there are certain trace elements in the composition of the drink. The taste of birch sap may differ from the locality where it was collected, as well as from the size and health of the tree itself.Sometimes the juice comes across as sweet, sometimes as tasteless as water. However, the composition of this drink is not so simple. It contains vitamins, minerals, organic acids, enzymes, sugars. Birch sap has a tremendous impact on the body.
- Due to its rich composition, the juice has tonic and tonic properties. Patients drink juice during the recovery period even after the most serious diseases.
- Birch sap strengthens the immune system, improves the body's ability to fight viruses and infections, has anti-inflammatory effect.
- Birch sap improves the digestive tract, normalizes the acidity of the stomach.
- The drink can accelerate metabolic processes, improves metabolism, which contributes to weight loss. In addition, the juice is very low in calories.
- Regular intake of juice improves kidney and urinary system.
- Birch sap is used externally to heal and heal various wounds, boils, inflammations, pustules and eczema.
- Birch sap is actively used in cosmetology. Washing this life-giving moisture helps to get rid of age spots, freckles, unwanted tan.In addition, birch sap relieves excessive oily skin and hair. Rinsing with birch sap makes the curls silky, strong and shiny.
This is just a small dose of the beneficial properties of birch sap. If nature gives us the opportunity to strengthen the body, we must take advantage of this opportunity. But so as not to harm this nature and not respond to good with evil.
When to collect birch sap
There is no exact deadline for collecting the healing drink. Indeed, in different regions of the country, spring comes at different times. Approximately this period can begin from the middle of March and lasts a maximum until the end of April. When the sun begins to burn, juices wake up under the bark of the tree, even if there is still snow around. Determine the readiness of birch to give life-giving moisture can be on her kidneys. If they began to swell - it's time to collect the juice.
You need to start collecting the juice from the extreme trees. Subsequently, when the sun will burn more and more, you can move into the depths of the forest or birch, because the trees wake up there later. It is not necessary to collect the juice from birch trees, located along highways and other places with polluted air.
To collect birch sap you need to choose medium trees with a good trunk. Making a hole in a sapling is not worth it. Firstly, it will not give a lot of life-giving coolness. Secondly, the tree may die after a similar collection.
How to collect birch sap
To collect birch sap you will need a drill, dishes and a straw.
- First, choose a birch tree from which we will take sap. Its diameter should not be less than 20 centimeters. It is better to choose a tree with a slight slope, so that the flowing juice is easier to collect.
- Make a hole to the sunny side of the forest. The sun heats the bark of the tree, the juice flows in this place much more intense.
- Do not use for the extraction of juice ax. After all, if such a wound does not heal, the tree will expire with life-giving moisture, it will dry out and just die.
- Take a drill and make a small hole in the tree trunk. The diameter of the hole should not exceed one centimeter, preferably 4-6 mm. If there is no drill, you can simply drive a nail into the barrel, slightly loosening it and enlarging the hole. Hole should not be too deep. It should be understood that birch sap flows mainly between the bark and wood.Therefore, to drive the nail too deep should not be.
- After that, a small tube is inserted into the hole. You can use the tubes for drinks with a corrugated part. In some stores you can buy a special tube for collecting birch sap. If there are no such devices at hand, use natural materials - ordinary grass. Several stems and leaflets need to be washed and inserted into a bunch. Green has a unique capillary system, and very soon birch sap will drip from the other end of the grass.
- Place a plastic bottle or bag under the straw or grass. No need to leave a container with a wide neck - a can or a saucepan. The fact is that the juice drips for quite a long time and the dishes will have to be left near the tree for more than one hour. During this time, it can attack the foliage, garbage. And if the juice is sweet, insects will surely encroach on it.
- Collect juice better 2-3 times a day. If the juice has stopped flowing from the hole, there is no need to deepen it or go to another well. Just change the tree.
- Birch can give up to five liters of juice, but never take away all the life-giving moisture from one tree, otherwise it will die.It is better to collect one liter from five birch trees than to squeeze everything from one.
- After collecting the juice, help the tree heal the wound. In the hole you need to drive a piece of a branch, cover it with clay or plug it with moss. Next year you will not find where the hole was made.
- Best of all, sap over the birch in the second half of the day, it is at this time that the best place to do is to collect.
These simple tips will help you get a refreshing drink, without harming the wood.
How to drink and store birch sap
The most useful use of birch sap is to drink it fresh. In the refrigerator or cellar juice can be stored for a month, not more. After this time, all the healing power of the product is lost, the drink becomes useless.
Some housewives preserve birch sap, but the occupation is rather dubious. The fact is that during boiling and even during pasteurization all the useful properties of the juice are lost, the product becomes no more useful than the usual sweet water. And putting fresh juice in cans is very dangerous - the can may explode from a non-sterile product. After all, surely in the process of collecting the small motes got into the juice.
From birch sap it turns out very tasty and rich kvass. To make it, you need to take 10 liters of birch sap and heat it to 30-40 degrees. Add the juice of five medium lemons, 50 grams of yeast and a couple of tablespoons of natural liquid honey to the liquid. Mix everything thoroughly and pour it into glass bottles. In each bottle, throw 3-4 raisins and leave the container in a warm place. When the brew starts to ferment (after about 5 days), it will need to be removed in the cold. This brew can be stored for several months.However, it is unlikely that it will last so long - it’s very tasty and deep is a drink.
Birch sap is a storehouse of natural vitamins and useful elements, thanks to which you can quickly and effectively improve your health. Give up drugs, at least for a while. Understand that in nature there are all the substances we need that can cure almost any disease. And most importantly, natural medicines are absolutely free. Just hold out your hand and take it.
Video: how to collect birch sap
To send