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Edible Landscape

River Birch = Water

16 years ago

Just an odd story. My mother has a couple of River Birches in her yard. I had to cut a few low hanging branches, no bigger in diameter than my thumb. They started dripping (which lasted for three or four days).

I got curious and put a coffee cup under one. It tasted like pure water and I'm guessing about as filtered as you can get, after going through the whole vascular system of a tree.

It struck me that it might be good in a survival situation. You'd be near water (hence the name) but I doubt water from the tree would have any parasites or amoebas.

B.

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Comments (2)

wildforager
16 years ago
Exactly, great survival source for water. Actually birch sap can be boiled down for syrup just like trees in the maple family. Just google birch syrup and you'll be amazed at the price for a pint of syrup ($18). The fact is.....

Maple sap to syrup ratio....40:1
Birch sap to syrup ratio....100:1

Time to start a boilin' bubba!

Peace,
Little John
bubbalove
Original Author
16 years ago
Little John,
I think that was actually water, not sap, that I was drinking (It didn't taste sweet). I was thinking it is water that the tree has sucked-up and hasn't reached the leaves yet. Maybe after the leaves, chlorophyll and sunlight it is then turned into sap, with sugar? What do you think?
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