What to do with pure birch sap. How birch sap is extracted: rules and adaptations. How to make kvass from birch sap

When there is fermented birch sap in the house, drink recipes home cooking will be useful, as they will allow not only to preserve the product, but to enjoy new tastes.

Traditional birch sap (or pasoka) is extracted from the trunk and branches of a birch before buds bloom on it. In spring, birch groves are filled with lovers of this life-giving drink, since the apiary is rich useful substances. It contains:

• enzymes;
• organic acids;
• tannins;
• vitamins;
• betulol;
• calcium;
• magnesium;
• copper;
• sodium;
• fructose;
• essential oils and etc.

The benefits of birch sap have been known for a long time, a fresh drink adds strength, tones up, helps fight chronic fatigue, strengthens the immune system, and helps to normalize metabolism. Among the people, it is used to treat rheumatism, gout, cholelithiasis, and it also fights edema, as it has a diuretic effect.

It is known that sap is usually stored for no more than 2 days, after this time it begins to turn sour. And sour birch sap helps with weight loss, but you can not use it in its pure form.

So is it possible to drink this drink if there are signs of fermentation? It is better not to use such a product, since microorganisms actively multiply in it, causing fermentation. Once in the stomach, they continue their vital activity, creating a "revolution" in the human body. Under such circumstances, sour birch sap can cause vomiting, nausea, bloating, liquid stool and other signs of poisoning.

AT this case recipes for drinks using fermented birch sap will come in handy.

Recipes for homemade pasok drinks

Kvass

What to do if birch sap begins to sour? The most common solution to the problem is kvass. In order to make homemade birch kvass, you will need:

• 2-2.5 liters of birch sap;
• ½ cup sugar;
• 100 g raisins;
• 2-3 crusts of rye bread.

The cooking method is quite simple:

1. Strain the juice through a cotton cloth or gauze folded in 4 layers.
2. Rinse the raisins and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Pour the main ingredient into a glass jar and add sugar, bread and raisins to it, mix everything.
4. Pull a rubber glove over the neck of the jar, and then leave to ferment. And when the glove puffs up well, then kvass is ready.
5. Next, you need to strain the drink and send it to the refrigerator to infuse for 2 days. Such kvass is drunk cold, its sour and slightly sweet taste perfectly refreshes in the summer heat.

It is also very easy to make apple kvass from birch sap. To do this, it is necessary to fill the apple drying with birch and close the lid tightly. Put the container in the refrigerator for 1.5-2 months. Then we filter and drink delicious kvass.

Braga

Why does juice turn sour? Due to the content of natural sugar, strong homemade mash comes out of such birch sap. It is worth noting that mash can also be prepared from fresh nectar. To get 3 l alcoholic drink a fortress of 40% vol. would need:

• 30 l - birch sap;
• 1 st. l. milk.

The cooking process is as follows:

1. It is necessary to prepare the starter. To do this, pour 3 liters of juice into a separate bowl, and the rest of the liquid must be evaporated.
2. Pour the remaining liquid into a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. After the juice boils, the fire must be reduced to a minimum and evaporated until 10 liters of liquid remain in the pan.
3. The resulting 10 liters must be cooled to 25 ° C, i.e. slightly warmer than room temperature.
4. Mix 3 liters of previously prepared juice with boiled juice, add milk, then pour the mixture into a fermentation vessel.
5. Install a water seal on the container and place in warm room. This is necessary for the drink to ferment.
6. After 14-16 days, when the fermentation process stops, you need to drain the mash from the sediment and overtake. The result will be about 3.5 liters of strong alcohol. To improve the quality of the drink, it can be cleaned with charcoal.

Wine

This product also produces delicious wine that is easy to make at home.

Ingredients:

• 12 liters of birch sap;
• 200 g raisins (it is better to use white);
• 10 lemons;
• 5 kg of sugar.

Cooking:

1. In a separate bowl, mix 5 liters of the main component and 2 kg of sugar. Put the dishes on the fire and heat for an hour. This is done to ferment the main product. And if there is some sour juice, you can mix the right amount of it with less sugar and heat it up a little.
2. After the liquid is heated, it is mixed with the rest of the juice.
3. Remove the zest from lemons (before that, wash and dry the citrus well).
4. Sugar residues, raisins and lemon zest are added to the resulting mixture.
5. Pour everything into a glass bottle and put in a warm dark place for 5-6 days.
6. After the time has elapsed, drain the liquid and strain.
7. Pour into bottles and infuse at a temperature not exceeding 15 ° C for a month.

As a result, the prepared drink will be slightly sparkling with a lemon aftertaste.

Natural birch syrup is considered useful, it is prepared by evaporation without the addition of other components. To do this, the product is simmered over low heat in a bowl with a wide flat bottom until it is reduced by 1/3, then a fresh drink is added and boiled again. The whole procedure is repeated 3-4 times. In the process, foam will appear on the surface, it must be removed. The resulting syrup must be filtered and stored in a cool place.

When is a product not suitable for use?

Birch drink recipes mainly contain fresh or slightly sour products, but there are special signs when it is no longer worth using, as it has completely deteriorated. Surely many people know that this drink can thicken, this process is associated with sugar, which is in the composition of the product. Sometimes they drink it like jelly, but still, if the moment is missed, and the juice has become such a consistency, then it is better not to use it. Some craftsmen it is recommended that if the juice has become thick, you just need to dilute it with water or boil it, but there will be no benefit from it.

Juice becomes absolutely unusable if mold is noticed on its surface. Even if you remove it and strain the liquid, there is still a risk that bacteria will continue to spoil the product.

There is an opinion among the people that it is impossible to store and even more so use a sour product that was stored in plastic container as it can be harmful to health.

Who should not eat birch products?

This wonderful drink can be consumed by almost everyone, but still it has some contraindications for use. It is known that it is not recommended to drink drinks from this juice and the apiary itself for hypertensive patients, since the drink can increase blood pressure. And also it is not recommended for people who have individual intolerance to this product.

Thus, birch sap is very healthy drink. Who drank it regularly, probably felt a surge of strength and energy. And there are a lot of drinks made on the basis of juice. They will delight you with their unique flavors. But it is worth remembering that if the product has thickened, then it is better to refuse to use it.

Reliable scientific data about useful properties birch sap today either does not exist at all, or they are hidden away from human eyes. Self-extraction of juice is treated as a crime, and if you ask a person about what Birch juice, then the first thing he remembers will be a sweet and sour liquid, “packed” in a glass jar or tetrapack.

Of course, later, perhaps, someone will remember the trees with black and white bark, but that will be later. And this is somewhat disturbing.

On the other hand, today is the time when a person learns about natural food not in the forest, in a clearing or near a river, but in a store, studying the colorful labels of semi-finished products.

Well, what kind of health can we talk about here ...

However, we have deviated greatly from main topic articles. After all, our the main task- find out what birch sap is, how it can be useful to us, how to prepare it and whether it is worth storing it for a long time.

Let's get started...

The benefits and harms of birch sap

Birch sap is a tree elixir of life that nourishes the birch throughout its existence.

This definition is far from scientific or at least generally accepted, but we believe that it reflects the essence of birch sap, its main purpose and value. At the same time, despite such a clearly defined biological role of birch sap, it is able to nourish not only the tree, but also the human body. And with no less efficiency.

At first glance, birch sap is very similar to water, but it is not water at all. And the point here is not at all in the sweet taste, which is a kind of "calling card" of birch sap. In fact, the two liquids have different chemical compositions.

The maximum that water is capable of is saturation with minerals. Birch sap, in turn, contains minerals, vitamins, enzymes, phytoncides, fructose, tannins, organic acids, essential oils and, most likely, much more. Because even in our advanced age, not everything is visible through a microscope.

Thanks to such a rich composition, birch sap benefits everyone who is able to drink it. And this, not a lot, not a little - almost the entire population of our vast planet. The only exceptions are two categories of people:

• those who were not lucky enough to “get their hands on” an allergy to birch catkin pollen
• healthy children under the age of six months who have the opportunity to feed on their mother's breast milk (no one will give birch sap to sick children at this age, but hypothetically it can help them too)

For everyone else, birch sap will be a good help in life, as it improves metabolic processes in the body, and with regular use it can quickly remove a huge amount of toxins from the gastrointestinal tract and human blood.

In addition, all kinds of inorganic deposits (salts, trans fats, etc.) are amenable to birch sap, which are waiting in the wings in the joints, internal organs, connective tissue and under the skin.

Such an effect on the body allows us to say with confidence that birch sap will be useful to everyone who has one or more diseases from the following list:

• sciatica, arthritis, rheumatism, gout
• stones in the kidneys, urinary and gall bladders (be sure to start with small volumes of juice and constantly monitor the size and position of the stones)
• functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, kidneys and other internal organs and systems
• cardiovascular diseases
• sore throat, cough, chronic runny nose, tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections and other diseases associated with the release of mucus and pus through the upper and lower respiratory tract
• any oncology
• any inflammatory processes in the body, and especially in the organs of the genitourinary system
• intoxication of any origin
• chronic fatigue, drowsiness and even depression

This is not a complete list of diseases and conditions in which raw fresh birch sap is indicated. However, we do not have a medical encyclopedia here, but just a small article about health. Therefore, on this conversation about the beneficial properties and diseases, we, perhaps, will finish.

We only note that fresh raw birch sap has the greatest healing cleansing power. Frozen raw juice will bring a little less benefit, and you will get very little benefit from all kinds of kvass, tinctures, industrial drinks called "Birch sap" and other products of industrial and home processing of this wonderful elixir.

How to collect birch sap

Acquaintance with the technology of self-collection of birch sap should begin with an answer to the question WHERE it can be collected. Although, of course, purely physically birch sap can be stored anywhere, including the Chernobyl "reserve". Only now only the juice that was collected away from any factories, cities, major roads (including railways) and agricultural fields can bring benefits to the body.

Only in this case will the birch sap be pure (without heavy metals, radionuclides, pesticides and other harmful substances). chemical compounds), safe and nutritious.

You can collect birch sap from the moment when the first buds swell on the birch trees, and until the first leaves appear. At the same time, in sunny glades, collection can begin a little earlier than in the depths of the forest. True, the leaves here bloom faster than in the wilderness. Therefore, start in clearings and gradually move to darker places.

To check if the juice has flowed, you can use a thin awl to pierce the bark and see if a drop of juice appears. If it appears, you can start collecting.

Trees should be selected based on the following parameters:

• trunk thickness at chest level of an adult - at least 20 cm
• developed "lush" crown

To cause minimal damage to a birch, a hole in the trunk should be made at an angle of about 45 degrees (to make it easier for the juice to drain), with a thin drill - no wider than 1 cm, no more than 3 cm deep. Curved pieces of tin, wooden and plastic can be used as a groove tubes, medical systems, etc. The main thing is that these grooves do not “enrich” the tree and the collected juice with harmful chemical elements and connections.

Each birch that meets the above criteria is able to produce an average of 1 to 7 liters of juice. At the same time, the holes made are tightened over time, and we get less and less juice. We recommend not making the hole deeper, but simply changing the tree. Just be sure to treat the damaged area - seal the hole hermetically with garden pitch, wax or clay.

How to save birch sap (until winter, at home)

Fresh raw birch sap can be stored in a cold place for up to 2 days without compromising quality. After this time, as well as when stored warm, birch sap starts to sour very quickly. And here methods of long-term storage of birch sap come to our aid ...

The ideal way to preserve birch sap until winter is to freeze it. Moreover, the juice must be frozen quickly, then everything useful will remain in it.

If there is no freezer, then you can “roll up” birch sap into sterilized glass jars. To do this, it is heated to 80 ° C, poured into jars and rolled up. tin lids. After that, the sealed jars are kept in 85-degree water for 15 minutes and left to cool at room temperature.

You can also make birch concentrate. To do this, the juice is brought to a temperature of 60 ° C and 75% of the total volume is evaporated. The remaining 25 percent of the concentrate is poured into sterilized jars and hermetically sealed. And before use, mix such a concentrate with water.

What is prepared from birch sap?

Since the "discovery" of birch sap, people have come up with dozens of recipes for making delicious and healthy (though not always) drinks, which include all kinds of kvass, syrups, homemade wines, fruit cocktails, sweet "water" and others.

The simplest drink is obtained by mixing birch sap with fruit or vegetable juices. In any proportions - to taste.

A little harder to prepare birch kvass(one of the options):
Fresh birch sap is poured into a glass bottle, a handful of raisins (at the rate of a few pieces per liter) and sugar (2 tsp per liter) are added there. If desired, you can also throw a little lemon zest, fruits or berries into the bottle. After that, the bottle should be tightly closed and put in a cool place. In a few days, kvass will be ready, but you can open it either immediately or after 2-3 months. Will not deteriorate.

Another option is birch-bread kvass:
Pour birch sap into any clean container (preferably in oak barrel), lower a cloth bag with rye breadcrumbs there and close the vessel. After a few days, the juice will ferment, and you can add dill stalks, cherry leaves and oak bark to it. Then the future kvass is closed for at least 2 weeks. After that, the vessel can be opened, and kvass can be drunk.

Prepared from birch sap and medicinal drinks. Usually for these purposes, birch sap is mixed with berries and honey.

For example, here is a recipe for making a birch-lingonberry drink:
The first step is to squeeze the juice from 150 grams of lingonberries. Then put the pomace in a saucepan and pour 1 liter of fresh birch sap. Hold this "compote" for 5 minutes in a water bath and cool. Mix with previously squeezed lingonberry juice and add a little honey (or a lot if you like sweets very much). Drink according to your mood. The drink has a pronounced diuretic effect.

As we have already said, there are a great many recipes for such drinks - at least according to a recipe for a berry. And if you remember about lemons, oranges and dried fruits, then during the spring you can provide yourself with a variety of drinks for the whole year. True, before that you will have to stock up on berries and dried fruits well ...

Birch- one of the most medicinal trees our country. The list of ailments that are treated with the help of birch has several dozen names. So much has been written about the benefits of fresh birch sap that it is not possible to dwell on it in detail. We only note that since time immemorial it has been famous as a healthy drink for young and old, healthy and sick, and also as an excellent cosmetic product.
In the spring, as soon as the snow begins to melt intensively, in the glades warmed by the sun, the birch trees stop their winter dream, the movement of juice begins. It is not difficult to collect it - it is enough to make damage on the tree trunk or break off a branch during this period, as sweetish drops will flow.

Nowadays, when forests are getting smaller, looking at the traces of inept attempts to collect sweet juice, it becomes especially pity for our native birches. After all, leaving, such a collector leaves an unhealed wound. Day and night, days and weeks, the tree will bleed its birch "blood". Dozens of liters of juice will flow out uselessly. It is almost impossible to stop such a flow from the notches made with an ax. And when the intense movement of the juice ends, this wound will be covered with bubbling pink mold, killer mushrooms will begin to develop, and the forest will lose another beauty.

Is it possible to collect sap without harming the tree? Can!

There is an easy way that gives brilliant results. From each mature tree we get up to 20 liters. The loss of such a volume of juice will pass without damage to the tree, if the leakage of juice is completely excluded. The main thing is that the tree will be provided reliable protection from the ingress and development of a dangerous fungal infection.

1. So, with the onset of warm spring days, in dry weather, when the last snow melts, we will go to the forest, taking with us:
- A small sharpened hatchet;
- Hand drill with a drill with a diameter of 8 - 10 mm;
- Children's plasticine or window putty;
- A cardboard tray cut out from a corner of a tetrapack milk bag (Fig. 1);
- A funnel for collecting juice, for example, cut from the top of a plastic bottle;
- A container for collecting juice, for example, a 5-liter plastic bottle.

Any image can be enlarged (just click on it).

2. We choose a suitable mature birch with a trunk diameter of at least 30 cm so that our intervention does not cause significant harm. In addition, as experts say, the juice from mature birches is sweeter. We do a general fitting, applying a bottle of different parties birch so as to securely install the bottle. A layer of rough crust should reach the top level of the funnel inserted into the neck of the bottle. This is necessary in order not to hurt the living tissues of the plant in the future and not harm the tree. With a hatchet, carefully make a flat, even cut the size of a palm, leaving a layer of bark with a thickness of at least 5 mm (Fig. 2.).

(Fig. 2.)

3. Knead between the fingers a lump of plasticine the size of Walnut. Plasticine will reliably protect the bark from getting wet, will not allow the juice to leak between the bark and the juice collection tray. At the same time, it will serve us for attaching a cardboard tray. Having rolled out a “sausage” from it along the width of the cut, apply it just below the intended hole and flatten the plasticine, carefully spreading it over the entire width of the cut with a layer 3-5 mm thick, carefully pressing it into the bark to ensure maximum adhesion (Fig. 3) . This is done in order to avoid even the slightest leakage of juice between the bark and plasticine and to securely fix the tray. The bark at the point of contact with plasticine must be dry, otherwise the tray will fall off over time. The location of the future hole is indicated by a dotted line.

5. Finally install the bottle. We level the soil at the bottom of the bottle with a spatula or hatchet, laying it in the right place and carefully tamping (Fig. 5). As experience shows, weakly compacted soil sags as the bottle is filled, which is why it deviates and the juice flows past the funnel.

(Fig. 5)

6. Further, leaving the bottle aside for a while, so as not to interfere, hand drill we make a hole with a depth of 4 - 5 centimeters (Fig. 6). This is the optimal depth to ensure that the cans are changed three times a day, for example, at 8 am, 2 pm and 8 pm, because. on a cold night the juice flows very slowly. It is easy to make an approximate calculation of the filling time of the jar, knowing the capacity of the jar and the number of drops flowing out per unit of time. As a rule, 15-20 drops are equal to 1 milliliter of juice. It makes no sense to increase the size of the hole for acceleration, because. excess juice will still be wasted.

We mask the entire structure from too curious eyes (Fig. 8).

(Fig. 8)

Now it remains only to regularly visit the place of collection of juice until the end of the sap flow.
The quantity and quality of juice is influenced by many factors: the time of collection of juice, individual characteristics plants, weather conditions and so on. From my own experience, I can say that the juice is released more intensively at the beginning of the collection and on warm, sunny days. There is evidence that on elevated, sunny edges and on the south side of the trunk, the juice is sweeter and healthier.

8. When the juice collection is completed, we disassemble the entire structure, remove the plasticine and securely close the hole. Usually for this it is recommended to hammer a wooden cork into the hole. To protect against fungal diseases in the literature, it is advised to pre-impregnate this cork with a solution of copper sulphate. I tried this by putting wooden corks in a solution of vitriol. But even in a week, these corks were not completely saturated. In addition, the juice still leaks through the capillaries of the wood cork, so all this impregnation flows out, and the fungal infection develops over time anyway.

The solution to the problem turned out to be simple and effective.

We cut the cork out of softwood tree, less prone to fungal infection. And protection from infection and reliable insulation an antiseptic waterproofing gasket between the birch wood and the stopper will ensure that the juice does not come out. To do this, we make a special "antiseptic" plasticine ball, mixing and carefully kneading plasticine with a dry antiseptic (fungicide): blue vitriol, copper oxychloride or any other in a ratio of approximately 1: 3 - 1: 5 (Fig. 9).

It turns out a neatly sealed hole (Fig. 11).

And if you're interested healing properties this amazing tree, look in any reference book medicinal plants, find there detailed description how and from what the Russian beauty treats - birch. May she always please us all, as a bright symbol of our Motherland!

Skuridin G.M., candidate of biological sciences.

Birch sap (birch)- liquid coming out of a birch in places of damage to its trunk or branches. Such damage can be cuts or fractures, and the outflow of fluid is due to the action of root pressure in the tree.

Birch sap is a very valuable product, enriched with many substances useful for the body, due to which this liquid has a complex beneficial effect on the state of human health.

Composition of birch sap

• Juice density - 1.0007-1.0046 g / ml;
• Dry matter content - 0.7-4.6 g / l;
• Ash content - 0.3-0.7 mg / l;
• The total sugar content is 0.5-2.3%;
• Proteins - 0.1 g / 100 g;
• Fat - 0.0;
• Carbohydrates - 5.8 g / 100 g;
• Among organic matter note: essential oils, saponins, betulol, more than 10 organic acids.

The calorie content of birch sap is- 22-24 kcal per 100 g of fresh product.

Birch sap also contains the following macro- and microelements (minerals):

• sugars - 1-4%;
• — 273 mg/l;
• — 16 mg/l;
• — 13 mg/l;
• — 6 mg/l;
• aluminum (Al) - 1-2 mg/l;
• manganese (Mn) — 1 mg/l;
• iron (Fe) - 0.25 mg / l;
• silicon (Si) - 0.1 mg/l;
• titanium (Ti) - 0.08 mg/l;
• copper (Cu) - 0.02 mg/l;
• strontium (Sr) — 0.1 mg/l;
• barium (Ba) - 0.01 mg/l;
• nickel (Ni) - 0.01 mg/l;
• zirconium (Zr) - 0.01 mg/l;
• — 0.01 mg/l;
• traces of nitrogen (N).

The chemical composition may vary somewhat depending on the region where the donor birch grows and the composition of the soil on which the tree grows.

Medical studies have shown that taking at least one glass a day for 2-3 weeks (it is optimal to drink a glass three times a day half an hour before meals) will help the body cope with spring, or absent-mindedness, fatigue and.

From the point of view of herbal medicine, birch sap is one of the best natural remedies for improving metabolism. Despite the fact that birch sap differs little from water, it ferments well and has a positive effect on the functioning of the stomach.

Birch sap is rich in sugars, organic acids, enzymes, calcium, magnesium, iron and other salts necessary for the body, which we talked about a little earlier. Due to its rich composition, it is recommended for diseases of the blood, joints, skin, as well as for other respiratory diseases.

The use of birch sap helps to cleanse the blood, enhance metabolic processes, remove harmful substances from the body in case of infectious diseases. It is useful to drink juice for and, diseases of the liver, gallbladder, low acidity, scurvy, and venereal diseases.

Birch sap also contributes to the rapid cleansing of the body from harmful substances and splitting urinary stones phosphate and carbonate origin.

Birch increases the body's resistance to colds, infectious and allergic diseases, has an anthelmintic, diuretic, antitumor effect, it is useful to wipe the skin with birch sap to moisturize and cleanse dry skin.

And it’s also useful to wash your hair with birch sap, to enhance their growth and the appearance of shine and softness (an infusion of birch leaves has the same property). Birch juice good remedy from impotence. Birch "tears" have a very good effect on women during the period. If you drink at least a glass of juice a day, then drowsiness, fatigue, irritability and other accompanying menopause phenomena will disappear.