Birch sap is a transparent-colored liquid that flows from tree trunks and branches under the influence of root pressure. The process of juice allocation begins in the spring and continues until the buds open. Juice is produced by making a cut on the bark or by cutting small branches. Next, a plastic gutter is attached to the place of cut, along which the juice flows into a substituted container or bag. For a day from one birch you can get 2 liters of juice.
Birch sap is very healthy. It’s just a storehouse of vitamins and useful substances. Fresh birch sap is not only a tonic and restorative, but also a diet drink. It is also used for diseases associated with the throat (cough and sore throat), headaches, joint diseases. In general, there are a lot of useful properties and advantages of this drink, but juice contraindications should be taken into account. It can not be used by people suffering from a stomach ulcer and urolithiasis.
Well, how to save birch sap? Unfortunately, this drink is stored extremely little. Shelf life a couple of days, from the strength of a week in the refrigerator. Do you know how to preserve birch sap with preservation? The preservation process must be carried out immediately after the collection of juice. It is required to add some preservatives, sterilize and store in a glass dish. But the resulting juice will not be as tasty and healthy as a natural product.
The next storage method is the preparation of birch kvass. It can be prepared in two ways. In the first, we add sugar and store in a cool place, the product can be consumed in a couple of days. And in the second, yeast is added to the juice, heated to a temperature of 30-40 degrees. Using this method, the drink should be infused for a week. In both cases, you can add raisins, rye crackers and slightly roasted barley for a darker color of the future drink. The shelf life of this kvass is 3 months.
The next tip on the topic: "How to save birch sap." This method consists in preparing a birch balsam. 250 ml of dry wine, 100 g of raisins, 100 g of vodka and 200 g of sugar should be added to the juice. The mixture you receive must be left in a dark and cool place for 3 months. After that, you need to bottle it and leave it for another month.
Next, you can cook birch balm. You can get it by evaporating the juice. The resulting balm is no less useful than juice. The problem lies in the production itself, since with prolonged evaporation of a whole bucket of juice you get only half a glass of syrup.
We also give an example of making birch juice for wine. To do this, add 100 g of sugar to one liter of juice and boil so much time that the amount of liquid is halved. Then filter and leave to cool. Put 2 g of citric acid. After the temperature of the juice drops to 30 degrees, you need to add 2 g of dry yeast. After a couple of weeks we try for sweetness. If it is sufficient, then pour 100 g of vodka. A month later, after filtration, we bottled.
You already know how to save birch sap. And now more about the time of collecting birch sap. It is recommended to collect this healing drink in early spring, when it is already warm enough, but the leaves have not yet blossomed. As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to make a cut or hole. But this should not be done with an ax. It is better to use a drill or something similar. So the harm done to the tree will be the least, but this will not affect the amount of juice.
It turns out that birch sap is very useful and you can use it all year round, replenishing the body with vitamins. Drink juice and be healthy.