Birch sap

I was wondering if anyone else is collecting birch sap. Usually I drink only water, but this spring I decided to get some birch sap. Now I have been drinking it for about 3 weeks. I drilled a hole in a tree and put a plactic tube in it. I collect it to a glass jar and get about 5 litres per day. It’s very tasty, sweet stuff. I don’t really know if there are any nutrients in it, but I suppose it’s cleaner than well water, having been filtered by the tree.

Cool, I have not yet tried it or with maples near me. What latitude do you live at, if I may ask? I had the impression sap grew bad tasting once buds showed up.

I live in Finland, spring here lasts long so I was able to get it for over 3 weeks. My boyfriend is from south Ural, his grandfather used to collect birch sap too, there they could only get it for about a week and a half. It did not grow bad tasting, but when the leaves came out the birch stopped producing sap. I remember collecting it once about 10 years ago as a kid, and then I did not like the taste. Then I collected it to a plastic bottle, so that might have affected the taste. Now it was just very fresh, like clean sweet water. It would be interesting to try collect it from maples, but we don’t really have them here.