Skip navigation

Tag Archives: harvest

Sourdough Sunday: Birch Sap Harvest 2023

It was a short week, 6 days ago, that I tapped our Birch tree. I probably could have tapped it a few days earlier if not for just being too busy. But better some sap than none!

With the speed of the melting snow the Birch sap has slowed it’s flow.

Me
Checking my Sap Bucket.

Our first gallon I poured into individual collapsible water bottles for drinking later. I found these new at the thrift store, a great find! They came with mini carabineers to clip onto your pack or belt while hiking this summer. Into the freezers they went.

Hiking refreshers.

Next, I used 3.5 gallons to try our version of Birch Beer, similar to root beer, and made about 3/4 of a gallon of flavored concentrate. I slow-simmered the sap in my turkey roaster until about half with a few Birch twigs. Once done I turned off the heat, added a vanilla bean and cinnamon stick and 1/2 cup xylitol to sweeten it a bit more. To serve, pour concentrate into a glass, half full, add a squeeze of fresh lime, a little more sweetener (to individual taste) and top off with seltzer. It’s got an earthy taste, faintly reminiscent of a root beer but not as herbal. I like mine less sweet, the kids like it more sweet. But they like it, that’s good.

It’s nice to have a natural soda alternative that’s not 44 grams of sugar per serving or full of who knows what.

I also put about half a gallon into some reusable popsicles for a cold summer treat. I made 20 of these, Alaskan style Otter Pops, all natural, no artificial dyes, flavors or sweeteners.

Birch pops.

I did learn that we have another native tree here that can also be tapped: Alder. I experimented and tapped a couple larger trunks (they aren’t very big here, 3-5 inches in diameter). I wasn’t set-up properly for collecting the sap so missed a lot. I did get enough to taste it. It’s similar to the Birch water, less flavor tho. Overall good to know in an emergency but not likely to try it annually.

What remains of our harvest is apx 3.5 gallons, which I’ll turn into ice cubes and jugs of sap to freeze and use later. I’m going to try brining my salmon in Birch sap and salt this summer.

Overall we harvested about 9 gallons from a single Birch tree in 6 days, 1.5 gallons a day on average. This is important to know if we want to harvest enough for a larger batch of syrup or beverages. Since Birch water doesn’t keep for more than a couple days without spoiling, it has to be used or frozen quickly. So if we needed 5 gallons to process into wine we would need to tap 4-5 trees for a larger daily quantity.

I pulled the spile early Saturday morning. And another foraging season has come & gone.

Next up for wildcrafting is cottonwood buds, fiddleheads, fireweed shoots, spruce tips and morels. Oh boy, I can’t wait!! So much to do, so little time!

Sourdough Sunday: Tapping Birch Trees

Last year Thing 1 wanted to try her hand at tapping Birch trees. We found that we all quite enjoyed the flavor of the fresh Birch sap/water so we’re at it again.

I actually found some time to tap one tree today and hopefully will tap a couple more over the next few days

I picked this nice Birch near our house.

You want a good sized healthy tree. We try for a 8-10 inch in diameter tree or larger. We also only tap an individual tree once then let it rest for a number of years before ever tapping again.

I drill a slightly upward angle with a drill bit close to the size of the small end of the tap. Going into the tree about an inch and a half or so. There’s plenty of instructions online of all the technical steps if you want those.

Once the hole is drilled you just hammer the tap into the tree until it’s secure. Hang your bucket and let it drip.

Bucket in place

We check the progress frequently to see how fast the sap is flowing. Also, anxious-to-drink-the-sap kids go out and fill little glasses to sample. That’s the trouble with having a tapped tree so close to home!

After about 7 hours we had a good 3/4 of a gallon. We poured off two quarts and filled some freezable bottles for a cool summer treat. Tomorrow we’ll see how much more we get.

Drip, drip, drip.

Birch water is a great source of minerals and other good stuffs. Check it out! I’m not really a fan of the syrup yet, but I’d like to try Birch beer (non-alcoholic) and Birch ale this year, if we get enough sap. And of course filling up several freezer bottles and popsicles for summer!

Sourdough Sunday: Moose Salvage

We did the real Alaskan experience last night, pulled an all-nighter in -13° temps quartering a salvage moose. (I posted pics previously.)

Alaska is serious about not wasting game meat. Even salvage moose still has useful meat left after an impact, these animals are just so big. But this poor girls torso was too far gone.

The truck that hit her did not fare well. I hope the occupants are okay.

The best we can do for these animals is make sure they don’t go to waste. The ultimate environmentally friendly action

Alaska Wildlife Troopers website and sign up page.

Shroom Cam: while picking apples

Site icon
Shroom Cam: while picking apples

Birch Sap Harvesting

Thing 1 is taking botany this year for her science. She’s been wanting to try out tapping birch trees to harvest their sap for a while now. This past weekend she got her chance.

Our days are longer and warmer but our nights are still plenty cold. Perfect time to tap a birch. I bought some tree taps at the farm store last week and two new 2 gal buckets with lids. Once we got to the cabin she went out, drill and supplies in hand.

The “Slow drip” tree in the foreground.

She settled on two old trees, one next to the sauna, the other up by the smoker. Taps in place and smaller buckets hung catching the few drips that morning. As the day went on, the sauna tree seemed to be the better producer.

She went out and checked late afternoon and wow! Full bucket in the sauna tree! Holy smokes it works!

Overnight the temps fell and we froze up solid. The “slow drip” tree froze up but the sauna tree had overflowed it’s bucket!

Slow drip, froze solid.

We broke off those sapcicles and ate them. Nature’s “Otter pops”!

All in just over 24 hours she got two gallons of birch sap. Impressive for her first try!

Now begins the process of cooking down the sap for syrup. I’ll let you know how long that takes!

Sauna tree’s cup runneth over.

Time to go so she whittled some birch twigs to fit the drill holes to plug the trees. Covered that with duct tape of course. And thanked the trees for their donation to our diet.