BIRCH SAP WINE

Just 4 u

This is a wine, which, intriguing by its novelty, is also an excellent wine in its
own right. It is probably of Baltic origin and during the last century was a popular drink
in Russia, so much so that upon occasions whole forests of young birch trees were killed
by the peasantry, who tapped them too enthusiastically . . . so beware of that error. No
harm will come to a tree by the loss of a gallon or so of sap in the spring (about the first
fortnight in March) but the hole must afterwards be plugged with a wooden plug, and can
then be used again next year. I am also told, although I can produce no written authority
for it, that birch sap wine was a favourite with the Prince Consort, who doubtless had
plenty of trees at his disposal!
The main precautions to observe are that you do not tap a very young tree—it
should be at least 9 in. diameter—that you bore only far enough into the tree for your tap
or tube to be held securely (bore to just beyond the inside of the bark, where the sap rises,
and not into the "dead" wood of the centre of the trunk), that you do not take more than a
gallon of sap from one tree, and that you plug the hole afterwards. Neglect of any of these
points may harm the tree.