Mr green's Garden 2016 (Sweden)

[Mr green]

Not much happening here yet have planted some carrots, parsnips and purple onions. The Rhubarb is coming alive tho so will share that. Im also sharing a method i tried this year with great results for harvesting Birch sap, full of minerals very refreshing to drink a little bit earthy flavor and very much so smell, i really feel energized by drinking it.

I used a hose on a branch that made a good fit, secured with some plastic foil. This way you can tap very young birch trees, even smaller than mine you get about a glass a day. The good thing with this method is that it doesnt harm the trees as with the original method on bigger birch trees pretty much the same method as for tapping maple sap for syrup.

As you can see on the old stump the amount of junk in my yard is quite amazing in this part full of nails and other metall stuff. It came from three holes planting blackberrys and a raspberry.

[ButterflyLady29]

Amazing method for tapping a tree! Thanks for sharing. I've had commercially bottled birch beer, it's good but not nearly as good as birch sap.

I feel your pain with all the old trash buried in the yard. I have the same problem. You should see some of the concrete chunks I've dug up.

[Mr green]

Yes hopefully with this method i can tap the very same tree many times. You sure get smaller amounts than the original method but is more sustainable for me, i get enough to use. Also you can do it with even smaller trees than this one but then it seems best to use the top of the main branch. The original method they say you should only do once per tree, twice could work but may kill it. I have little experience with it tho.

I never tried birch beer never even seen it here. I have seen birch sap (heated to conserve wich kills alot of the nutrients) and it costs like 10$ for a small bottle!

Yeah it seems like back in the days people had their own landfills in their yards. -.-

[j3707]

One of these days I'll get around to tapping some maples at my place. I have a couple taps and buckets. If I find the right tree, I'll give your method a try!

[Mr green]

Yes sounds good how is the maple sap if you don't cook it into syrup i wonder... Please share your results if you do. Here in Sweden we don't have the right kind of maple trees.