The extraction of such a valuable product as birch sap is carried out in April-May (depending on the region) and lasts no more than two weeks. So birch sap is in a sense a delicacy, and you should not miss the opportunity to collect and prepare it. It is known that the vitamins contained in the juice are preserved for a long time after collection, but only if it is properly preserved.

Without any processing, fresh juice is stored for no more than two days, and in the cold: in a warm room or in the sun, it quickly turns sour. But this is not the only problem, because the longer the juice is “idle”, the less useful substances remain in it. So you need to start processing freshly harvested juice as soon as possible.

Birch sap storage: preservation, freezing, sterilization

Conservation- this is the most popular and, according to many housewives, a convenient way to preserve birch sap. So, for this you need:

1. Fill an enameled or steel pan with fresh juice, add the necessary (to your taste) amount of sugar and lemon.
2. Boil the juice and wait for the sugar to dissolve completely.
3. Pour the juice into jars, close them with lids and sterilize for at least 15 minutes in water heated to 90°C.

There is also an alternative harvesting method: preservation with pine shoots or fresh mint.

1. Collect young pine shoots (mint), rinse thoroughly and pour over with boiling water.
2. Heat the juice to 80 ° C, strain, and then fill it with needles (mint) and leave for 5-7 hours.
3. Drain the juice, add sugar and citric acid to it.
4. Pour the juice into jars, seal them with lids, and pasteurize for 25 minutes at 90-95°C.

Birch sap can be frozen and preferably faster. For this, an ordinary household freezer is suitable, which will allow you to preserve the unique properties of the juice “in its original form”. Frozen juice keeps for many months. Even after the New Year, it will be as tasty as fresh.

Juice can be sterilized. Here's how it's done: It's heated to 80°C and then poured into clean glass jars. The jars are rolled up and kept in water heated to 85°C for 15 minutes. Then they should cool down at normal (room) temperature.

Drinks with the addition of birch sap: kvass, fruit drink, compote

Agree, the taste of birch sap is mild. For this reason, this product seems uninteresting, tasteless to some. If you have excess juice that you do not plan to use in its pure form, you can prepare unusual mixes based on them. True, such drinks are not as healthy as real, undiluted juices, but they will help diversify the range of your stocks for the winter.

Recipe for delicious kvass from birch sap

1. Take a glass container (bottle, jar) and fill it with birch sap.
2. Pour in a handful of raisins and sugar (at the rate of 2 tsp / 1 liter), as well as lemon or orange peels (or grated zest), dried fruits (optional).
3. Mix all the ingredients well (shake the jar) and put it in a cool place without light.
4. After 2-3 days, the drink can be tasted and evaluated. It retains its freshness for several months (again, when stored in the cold).

Fruit/vegetable drink

The easiest way to prepare fruit drink is to mix birch sap with any home-made juice (for example, apple or carrot) in arbitrary proportions.

Lingonberry-birch compote

You will need 150 g of cranberries and 1 liter of birch sap. The drink can be prepared from both fresh and canned juice. The same applies to berries.

1. Squeeze the juice from the berries.
2. Put the lingonberry "cake" into a saucepan; add birch sap.
3. Hold the pot with the drink in a water bath for 5 minutes.
4. Top up with the lingonberry juice squeezed out earlier and flavor the drink with honey or sugar.
5. Cool down and enjoy!

As it turned out, birch sap is not "seasonal entertainment." It is only important to have time to collect it before the buds begin to appear on the trees, and then to prepare it as quickly as possible. Use several methods, and then compare the results, since now you know how to save birch sap. In winter, a home-made healing drink will help make up for the lack of vitamins, and in summer it will invigorate and quench your thirst.

Causes vivid associations with childhood. Then he was the constant companion of all forest walks. But how to store birch sap at home so that it does not lose its beneficial properties?

Birch nectar - pleasant taste and undoubted benefits

A drink from childhood is also one of the best and most natural means for regulating metabolism. Also, its regular intake can help defeat spring beriberi, fatigue and increase resistance to viral and colds. Regular use helps to cleanse the body of harmful toxins and dissolve some types of kidney stones. But there are also contraindications: it is categorically not recommended to take if you are allergic to birch pollen.

When to Collect

The sap from the tree begins to stand out with the first spring thaws and continues until the foliage appears. It is best to collect it in the morning or afternoon, as the secretion becomes less intense at night. The best time to collect birch sap is from 10 am to 6 pm.

How to collect

It is necessary to collect useful nectar with the utmost care so as not to harm the tree itself. To do this, you need to make a shallow incision on the birch at an angle of 45 degrees or drill a hole with a gimlet. Then insert a tube or groove into the resulting hole, through which the juice will begin to drain into the prepared dishes (glass jar or plastic bottle). After collecting, be sure to tightly cover the wound with wax, laundry soap, or fill it with moss. This will help prevent birch rot. So, now that you know how and when to collect the drink, the only thing left to answer is how to store birch sap.

Juice storage at home

The disadvantage of birch sap is a short shelf life. Even in a cool place, it retains its qualities for only two days, on the third day it becomes cloudy. Are there ways to extend its life? How to save birch sap for the longest possible time? The answer to this question will be several ways to store at home. The most popular recipe is syrup. To prepare it, it is necessary to evaporate the original product to the consistency of fresh honey. In this case, the concentration of sugar in the cooking process will increase to 60-70%. The finished syrup, which has a pronounced sweet and sour taste and strong aroma, is added to tea. You can also save the juice by preserving it, heating it to 80 degrees, and, pouring it into sterilized jars, seal it hermetically. But still, a fresh product without heat treatment contains a maximum of useful properties. Freezing will help keep it that way. Pour the collected nectar into an ice maker and store in the freezer. This is the best answer to the question of how to store birch sap, as in this case it will retain almost all of its beneficial properties. Production of birch sap is also possible in industrial conditions.

At first, a small educational program for those who have never tried to extract birch sap on their own, but really want to learn. For the rest, see the information below: how to preserve (preserve) birch sap for long-term consumption, make healing kvass based on it and how it is actually useful for our body.

Birch sap is a clear liquid flowing from cut or broken birch trunks and branches under the action of root pressure. Sap flow begins in the spring with the first thaws and continues until the buds open. The exact period of birch sap release is difficult to establish, because it depends on weather conditions. For example, if during the March thaw the juice has already begun to flow and then, unexpectedly, frost hit, then it may stop standing out for some time.

To accurately determine the beginning of sap flow, it is enough to go out into the forest or a grove and make an injection on a birch as thick as a hand with a thin awl, if the juice has gone, then a drop of juice will immediately come out at the puncture point, you can start collecting and harvesting it. Collecting juice is stopped in the second half of April, when the leaves are already blooming.

The most intensive sap flow through the tree occurs in the light half of the day, so it is better to start collecting in the morning, at night the juice "falls asleep". The best time to collect the juice will be between 10:00 and 18:00, when it flows most strongly. The number of holes that are recommended to be made depends on the diameter of the tree, if the trunk diameter is 20-25 cm - then only one, 25-35 cm - two, 35-40 - three, and if the diameter is more than 40 cm - it is quite possible to make four holes.

The collection of birch sap should be started in the most sun-warmed places where the birch wakes up, even if there is still snow around. As the forest warms up, one should move deeper into the thicket, to where the forest wakes up later than on the southern edge. Usually, 2-3 liters of juice per day are obtained from a birch. A large tree can produce about 7 liters of juice per day, and sometimes more. It is preferable to collect the sap where the felling is planned, and it is not recommended to take it from young trees.

Due to the fact that birch roots go far into the ground, it does not absorb poisons from the surface layer of the soil. Therefore, all places where birch grows are equally good for collecting sap, but it is still better to collect sap in ecologically clean forests, because the tree itself is able to absorb harmful substances and exhaust gases.

How to extract birch sap

The choice of dishes for collecting and storing birch sap must be approached selectively. In the old days, birch sap was collected in special boxes made of birch bark, it was believed that in them it retains its properties better. But it is quite possible to collect juice in ordinary glass jars or even in plastic bottles, but remember that chemistry can give the juice its specific flavor, and sometimes it dissolves in it itself.

Juice is usually obtained by cutting, cutting or drilling the bark of a tree, the diameter of which is not less than 20 cm, with a well-developed crown. It is better to make a slot or a hole in the trunk on the south side of the tree, where the sap flow is more active, at a distance of 40-50 cm from the ground, downward (the movement of your knife should be from the bottom up), the depth of the hole is 2-3 cm to penetrate under the dead bark, and if the birch is very thick, then even deeper. An aluminum, plastic groove, birch bark tray or other semicircular device is inserted into the slot, through which the juice flows into the container. Sometimes the juice is extracted by cutting off small branches and attaching a plastic bag to the place of the cut.

No need to strive to "drain" all the juice from one tree, it compensates for part of it, but if you bleed the tree completely, it can dry out. It is better to take a liter of juice per day from 5-10 trees than to take 5 liters from one, dooming it to death. After the collection of birch sap is over, it is necessary to take care of the tree itself and tightly close the holes made with wax, cork or moss so that bacteria do not get into the trunk, which can seriously threaten the life of the tree. After birch trees are cut, sap collection can be organized from stumps.

How to store birch sap

If you do not want to drink the juice right away, but want to keep it longer, pour it into a glass jar and refrigerate. So the drink will be less oxidized, that is, spoil. However, it is better not to store the juice for longer than 2-3 days, otherwise it will ferment. But if you preserve the juice, then it will stand for several more months. A few recipes:

1) Fresh birch sap is fermented in glass containers of any volume. After washing with hot (preferably boiled) water, they are filled with fresh juice. For every half liter, add an incomplete teaspoon of ordinary or glucose sugar, 2-3 raisins washed in cold boiled water, and, if desired, a little lemon zest. The container is closed with a cork or lid and secured with wire or bandages. The pressure of carbon dioxide during fermentation is quite high, and so that the glass does not burst, putting more than the indicated amount of sugar is not recommended. After a few days, you will have a pleasant-tasting, sour, highly carbonated drink.

2) For canning, heat the juice in an enamel bowl to a temperature of 80 degrees. Pour into glass bottles or jars almost to the top and cork with lids or corks, followed by grinding. Then soak for 15-20 minutes in water at 85 degrees for pasteurization.

3) Also, in order to preserve birch sap, kvass is made from it. Heat the juice to 35 degrees, add 15-20 g of yeast and 3 raisins per 1 liter, you can add lemon zest to taste. After that, the jar or bottle should be tightly closed and left to infuse in a cool, dark place for 1-2 weeks.

Kvass can be prepared in a different way.
To 10 liters of birch sap add the juice of 4 lemons, 50 g of yeast, 30 g of honey or sugar, raisins at the rate of 2-3 pieces per bottle. Pour into bottles and keep 1-2 weeks in a dark, cool place. Kvass can be ready already in 5 days, but the fact that it stays longer will not spoil the drink, it can be stored for the whole summer.

Another kvass recipe.
A bag with burnt crusts of rye bread is lowered on a rope into a barrel with birch sap. After two days, yeast will pass from the crusts into the juice and fermentation will begin. Then a bucket of oak bark is poured into the barrel as a preservative and tanning agent, and for aroma - cherries (berries or leaves) and dill stalks. After two weeks, kvass is ready, it can be stored all winter.

Our ancestors drank birch sap, fermented in barrels, without added sugar - it was a traditional low-alcohol drink at Russian feasts. Birch juice itself is a pleasant, refreshing and body-strengthening drink, however, you can add juice of chokeberry, lingonberry, blueberry to it or insist on various herbs (thyme, chamomile, cumin, linden flowers, rose hips) in a jar covered with gauze for about 2 weeks . You can add to it infusions of St. John's wort, mint, lemon balm, pine needles, cherry juice, apples, currants.

Birch sap can be evaporated to a syrup containing 60% sugar. This syrup has a lemon-white color and the density of honey.

Belarusian drink. Pour the juice into a large bottle and put in a dark, cool place for 2-3 days. Then barley malt or toasted crushed crackers are added to it. For 5 liters of birch sap - 30 gr. barley malt or breadcrumbs.

Balm is also prepared from birch sap. For a bucket of juice, you need 3 kg of sugar, 2 liters of wine and 4 finely chopped lemons. All this must be put to ferment for two months in the cellar, and then bottled and kept for another three weeks.

Healing properties of birch sap

Birch sap contains organic acids, tannins, minerals, iron, potassium, calcium, glucose, fructose, phytoncides. The use of birch sap promotes the breakdown of stones in the bladder and kidneys, cleanses the blood, enhances metabolic processes, removes harmful substances from the body, is very useful and healing for various infectious (infectious) diseases.

It is useful to drink juice for stomach ulcers, diseases of the liver, duodenum, gallbladder, low acidity of gastric juice, sciatica, rheumatism, arthritis, bronchitis, tuberculosis, scurvy, headache, sexually transmitted diseases, etc.

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

It is very good to apply the following mask on the skin of the face during the season of harvesting juice: mix 1 tbsp. l. sour cream with 2 tbsp. l. birch sap and 1 tsp. honey. Keep this mask for about 15-20 minutes, then rinse with cool water. The skin after it will acquire a beautiful matte shade, enlarged pores narrow.

And it is also useful to wash hair from dandruff with birch sap, to enhance their growth and the appearance of shine and softness (an infusion of birch leaves has the same property). Birch sap is a good remedy for impotence. The substances contained in it have a positive effect on people during menopause - if you drink at least a glass of juice a day, then drowsiness, fatigue, irritability and other accompanying menopause phenomena will disappear.

The best way save birch sap- Freeze it quickly. At the same time, all its useful qualities are preserved: vitamins, enzymes, organic acids, tannins, calcium, potassium, iron salts, plant hormones, glucose, phytoncides.

It is also important that Birch juice- nothing more than structured water that heals the whole body. And when the juice freezes and thaws, the structure of the water remains for some time (they write that a maximum of 22 hours). But why wait such a long time? It is necessary to act according to the principle: received juice - froze - thawed - drank - became healthy, cheerful and cheerful.
Just like birch, you can save maple sap. It's much tastier because it's sweeter.

Ways to save juice:
= Surely last year's frosts of berries and vegetables were eaten in the freezer. I advise you to fill the freezers with birch sap.
It is best to pour it into freezer bags in small (one-time) portions. For example, pour 2 cups of juice into a bag, release the air, tie it tightly and put it in the refrigerator.
If stacking, make sure that the lower packages do not burst under the weight of the upper ones.
For medicinal purposes, it is recommended to drink a glass of juice half an hour before meals 3 times a day from 1 to 3 months. It is very useful to wipe the skin of the face, neck, and décolleté with ice cubes.

Birch sap will be preserved if mixed with alcohol, vodka or moonshine. The fortress must be at least 18 degrees. It is useful to pour an additional teaspoon of birch buds on the floor - a liter bottle.
This tincture can be used to treat wounds, drink a tablespoon for colds, add to water for washing and rinsing hair with oily skin, gargle, etc.
If you pour 40 ml into a glass of birch sap. any alcohol tincture: rhodiola rosea, ginseng, eleutherococcus, Japanese sophora or lemongrass - it turns out an excellent tonic and powerful anti-aging agent. People over 40 are recommended to wipe their face after washing.
= You can, of course, preserve juice at home. To do this, strain the juice, pour it into a clean enamel pan, add sugar to taste (in different recipes it is suggested from 70 to 125 grams per liter of juice), add citric acid (about 3-5 grams) or freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Boil juice with sugar and lemon, depending on freshness, from 2-3 minutes to 15. If there is foam, remove.
Then pour into washed and sterilized dishes, roll up the lids, turn over and leave the jars upside down until cool.
Cooled cans of juice are stored in the cellar.
This is the most popular method in the past and the most damaging to the juice. Previously, it was prepared in this way in industrial quantities, and there was a lot of it in Soviet stores.

The juice produces excellent champagne, kvass and moonshine. But I already wrote about this.
Ludmila

Birch sap has many beneficial properties and has a beneficial effect on the body. In addition, it quenches thirst very well. Unfortunately, due to the short shelf life, it is necessary to resort to various methods of processing and conservation in order to keep it longer.

Conservation

The simplest and most reliable way to preserve birch sap is to roll it into jars. There are many ways, depending on tastes and possibilities. In Soviet times, the most popular way of industrial preservation of juice was to preserve it in 3-liter jars with sugar and lemon juice. The juice was tart, sweet-sour and quite rich in taste. To date, conservation has become somewhat more complicated with various additives. Medicinal herbs, fresh citrus fruits, and so on began to be added to birch sap.

Kvass with yeast

Ingredients:
- birch sap - 1 l;
- yeast 15-20 g;
- raisins - 3-4 pcs.

Heat birch sap in an enamel bowl to 30-35 ° C, pour it into a jar (bottle), add yeast and washed raisins (you can add the zest of half a small lemon to complete the taste). Close the lid tightly (bottle with a cork) and put it in a dark, cool place. After 2 weeks birch kvass is ready. In the absence of heat, it is up to six months and even longer. The recipe allows for the replacement of yeast 5-6 grams.

Kvass without yeast with dried fruits

Ingredients:
- birch sap - 5 l;
- - 800

Keep fresh birch sap for a week at room temperature in any container, except metal. As soon as the juice starts to turn sour and the first signs of fermentation (bubbles, sour smell) begin to appear, add thoroughly washed dried fruits to it, cover with a clean cotton napkin and put it in a dark, cool place for 2-3 weeks. Strain the finished kvass and pour into jars (bottles), close with tight lids (corks). Kvass is stored without access to light and heat (in the cellar, in the refrigerator) until the next birch sap collection season.

You can replace dried fruits with 30 grams of barley malt, but in this case, add 3 tsp to the juice. natural honey. You will get kvass in Belarusian.

Russian balm

Ingredients:
- birch sap - 10 l;
- granulated sugar - 3 kg;
- - 2 l;
- lemon - 4 pcs.

Stir sugar in slightly warmed birch sap, pour in wine. Finely chop the lemons right with the peel and add to the juice. Cover the container with a cloth and put it away for 2 months in a cool place. Then bottle and age for another 3 weeks. The balm is ready to use. It can be kept for as long as you like.

Sources:

• kvass on birch sap with raisins

Birch sap is very useful. It improves metabolism and relieves fatigue. It is also recommended to drink it for beriberi, pulmonary diseases, diseases of the blood, joints, kidneys and bladder. Of course, it is better to use fresh birch sap, but canned sap is also a delicious drink.

You will need

• - for 1 liter of juice 2 tbsp. Sahara;
• - orange;
• - lemon.

Instruction

First you need to get fresh juice. To do this, find a suitable birch in the forest in the spring. It is better that it be away from busy roads in an ecologically clean forest. Make a small incision in the tree and fix the groove, and drill through the bark and insert the tube. On it, the juice will flow into a jar or other container.

You can still get by with a more gentle method. Just cut a branch at an angle and hang a plastic bottle from it. After a few hours, the container will be filled with birch. After collecting, be sure to cover the wounds of the tree with plasticine or garden pitch to stop the juice from flowing out.

Strain the juice and pour into a stainless steel or enamel saucepan, bring to a boil. While juice, wash the orange and lemon, wipe them. Then cut straight with the peel, orange - into slices, lemon - in circles. Add sugar to the boiled juice and cook until it dissolves. Fill jars with hot juice and place an orange wedge and 2 lemons in each. After which you can.

If you are afraid that birch sap will ferment anyway, sterilize it. To do this, pour water into a large saucepan, heat it and place the unrolled cans on the hangers. When the water boils, note the time. After 15-20 minutes, remove the jars and roll up.

Place the jars upside down on a blanket or blanket and wrap around the top. The next day, transfer the jars of birch sap to the basement or cellar for storage.

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note

Do not sterilize rolled jars, the lids will be torn off due to the pressure generated during heating. Or use special clamps that allow you to sterilize jars with rolled-up lids.

Helpful advice

Not all birch trees produce sweet sap, so choose the best one for your taste. Just be sure to cover up the wounds on the bark while you look for a good tree. It is better to remember this birch and take sap from it every year.

Traditionally, birch sap is drunk immediately after collection, until it has lost its freshness and maximum benefits. Within 2-3 days it can be stored in the refrigerator or in the cellar, during which time it will not deteriorate. But then it will inevitably turn sour, ferment and turn into a poisonous liquid. However, people who have known about the healing properties of birch sap since time immemorial have learned to store it in winter as well. Many of these recipes are still used today.

You will need

• - birch sap;
• - granulated sugar;
• - raisin;
• - yeast;
• - dried fruits;
• - jars or bottles for storing juice;
• - metal caps and plugs.

Instruction

Fermentation. Take 3 liters of birch sap, 6 tsp. granulated sugar and 10-15 raisins. Pour the juice into a 3-liter jar, clean and aged over steam for 10 minutes, pour out the sand and add the washed raisins. Mix everything well and close with a loose lid or balloon. After 2-3 days, a highly carbonated drink with a pleasant taste is formed in the jar, in which all the birch sap remains. This drink can be stored for quite a long time in a cool place in containers with closed lids.

Conservation. Pour birch sap into an enamel pan and heat to 80°C. Never bring it to a boil. Quickly pour hot juice into prepared, i.e. pre-steamed over boiling water, bottles or jars. Cover the bottles with corks (loosely), the jars with lids and place them in a large pot of water heated to 90 ° C for pasteurization. Soak them in this saucepan, set on the stove on the quietest fire, for 20-30 minutes. Then close the bottles tightly with corks, and roll up the jars with metal lids. Store in a dark place.

You can make your job easier by eliminating the pasteurization procedure. To do this, after pouring the heated juice into bottles and jars, immediately close them tightly with corks and metal lids, quickly wrap them in old blankets (fur coats, shawls, scarves) and set aside to cool naturally, then store them in a dark place.

Yeast kvass. Take 1 liter of birch sap, 15-20 grams of fresh (pressed) yeast or 5-6 grams of dry and 5-10 raisins. Heat the juice in an enamel saucepan to 30-35°C, then pour it into a jar or bottle, add yeast and raisins. Close with a tight lid and place in a dark, cool place. Kvass will be ready in 2 weeks. In the absence of heat and light, it can be stored for up to 6-8 months.

Kvass. To prepare such kvass, you will need 5 liters of birch sap and 800 grams of dried fruits (with less juice, reduce the amount of dried fruits accordingly). Pour the juice into an enameled, glass or ceramic dish, cover with a towel and keep at room temperature for several days. At the first signs of fermentation (turbidity, islands of foam, sour smell, etc.), add thoroughly washed dried fruits, cover again with a towel and place in a dark, cool place. After 2 weeks, strain the finished kvass through a sieve or gauze and pour into jars or bottles, closing with tight lids (corks). In the refrigerator or in the cellar, such kvass is stored until the next birch sap collection season.

Rules for collecting birch sap and its benefits

Birch sap is a liquid that is released from cuts in the trunk of a birch. In order to assemble it, you need to use a special aluminum groove that can be inserted into the slot on the barrel. The released juice will flow down the groove into the substituted container. Most often, three-liter cans are used to collect the drink.

Spring is considered the best time for extracting juice. From about the beginning of March to mid-April, when the leaves begin to bloom on the trees, the period of its active collection lasts. From one adult birch per day, you can collect up to 3 liters of juice. After the collection is completed, it is imperative to cover the incision site with garden pitch.

Birch sap contains a huge amount of vitamins and minerals. It is very beneficial for health. The juice has a very pleasant sweet taste. It is used to treat bronchitis, cough, as well as diseases of the kidneys and liver.

In order to preserve the juice, it is necessary to conserve it within a day after collection, as this product deteriorates very quickly. First you need to prepare the container. It is very convenient to preserve juice in three-liter jars. Banks must be thoroughly washed and sterilized over steam or in the oven.

The collected juice must be poured into an enamel pan and brought to a boil over low heat. When it boils, you can add sugar, lemon and orange slices to it. For 3 liters of juice, you need 3 tablespoons of sugar, 2 cups of lemon and 2 cups of orange with peel. Fruits give the drink an original taste.

After adding fruit ingredients and sugar, it is necessary to boil the juice for 5 minutes, then pour it into sterile jars and immediately roll up with sterile lids. Keep the drink in a dark and cool place.

You can also sterilize juice bottled in jars. This preservation method is more reliable. Juice with the addition of sugar and fruits should be poured into jars, and the jars should be placed in a saucepan filled with water. Banks must be covered with tin lids. At the bottom of the pan, be sure to lay a towel or a small cloth. Sterilize jars for 20 minutes, after which they should be rolled up.

You can also preserve juice with citric acid. Some housewives prefer to add mint leaves to the drink to give it a refreshing taste.