Children of the mid XX century perfectly remember bellied three-liter jars with transparent birch juice in grocery stores. While a glass of drink cost eight cents and was the cheapest among other juices. Collect these "birch tears" in the apt words of poets, making an incision barbaric "living skin" - bark belostvolnoy beauty.

What is birch sap?

"I saw in the spring forest birch sap" - emotionally sang the Soviet psychological detective "blunder" (1968) Michael Nozhkin. Whether this whole generation's favorite film, or the availability of transparent glass of the beverage and its incomparable taste of birch sap made the most popular dessert generations of the late XX century.

Birch sap - a colorless liquid drained from the incised birch branches and trunks under the root pressure. Sap flow in the small tree begins in early spring, with the first drops, and ends with the blooming buds. Since one tree per day prepared from two to three liters of juice, while adults may provide a big tree and to seven liters per day. Juice usually mined, incision with a sharp knife the bark of a tree and inserting a special tube into the slot on which it drains into the hanging container. Sometimes the juice is extracted by hand, notching small twigs attached to the cut jar or plastic bag. After receiving the required amount of juice, plug the slot with moss or obscure the melted wax to the barrel did not get harmful bacteria.

The Slavs to the baptism of Rus there was a cult of birches, and collecting juice such barbaric methods is strictly prohibited. We collect the ancient Slavs juice for special rituals, with proofreading prayers and pleas for forgiveness from the tree. With the arrival of Christianity to Russia production of birch sap has become widespread. Currently, this drink is related to the food resources of the forest, which is more usually called wild plants.

Analogs of birch sap

The spring sap flow occurs at all, without exception, the trees, but the practical application is a collection of maple syrup in the United States. It is obtained from the bark and twigs of box elder (US) and sugar maples. This juice in southern Canada and in the state of Vermont (USA), is widely used to produce the sweet maple syrup - delicious business card of this state.

In Russia, these kinds of maple grow, too, but the Russians collected maple sap rarely be compared with the amount of fees the blanks of birch sap as sugar maple grows mainly in North America, the other types of plant-growing is not so, and therefore counterproductive to collect juice.

The use of birch sap

The composition includes volatile birch sap, fruit sugar, tannin, trace elements and vitamins, organic acids, more than a decade. In folk medicine, the juice is recommended as a restorative remedy for many internal diseases, it is used topically for eczema Eczema , Dark spots and acne, it is used for washing the hair as strengthens hair Hair: structure, characteristics of growth and development   and getting rid of dandruff.

Scientists studied the antitumor activity of birch sap. It is recommended to drink at a variety of diseases of the respiratory system, gallstones and kidney, rheumatism, swellings, non-healing ulcers and wounds birch juice is useful in diabetes, it cures neuroses, helps with sclerosis, normalizes blood pressure.

Acceptance of one glass of juice a day for a week helps during seasonal exacerbations beriberi cope with depression, lethargy, fatigue. Optimal reception of birch sap for the prevention of the weakness of the spring - three cups a day for 20-30 minutes before each meal. Contraindications can only be allergic to birch pollen.

Naturopaths recommend drinking birch sap as one of the best natural remedies to improve metabolism. Despite the fact that the birch juice to taste and composition differs little from the water, he is well exposed to the fermentation process and has a beneficial effect on the stomach healthy. From natural birch sap cooking wine, kvass Russian kvass: ideal for summer   and syrup. The fermented juice are often added to other fruit and berry juices, give the low-alcoholic beverage without sugar and artificial additives yeast.

It is interesting

In Belarus, there is a belief that those who get drunk plenty of birch sap is called "from the belly", the whole life will be fresh and healthy. During World War II this juice, in the absence of other medications, sealed off the wounded, and they quickly recovered.

At Alexander Twardowski (1910-1971) there is a line in a poem about spring: "And even stump birch / Zalёtsya pink foam" - the so haunting, foaming from the stump of birch sap in natural conditions, becoming a heady brew. Ancestors Rus drank fermented Berezovytsya (often referred to as birch sap in the nation) in barrels without adding sugar - it was a traditional low-alcohol drink at all Russian feast.

Jeanne Pyatirikova

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