Collect your sap, drill your hole with a sterilised drillbit and insert the tap or ‘spigot’. I’ve customised a ‘speedy spigot’ from a piece if pipe, a small length of tube inserted into the pipe with a square of muslin sandwiched between to filter out debris.

The pipe has a notch that the bottle wire hangs from. Plug the neck of the bottle with cotton wool to keep out insects.

Time taken to collect 6 litres of sap=  6 hours

Close the tap holes with a wooden plug and say ‘thank you.’

Start to simmer the sap below it’s burning point of 93 degrees C, jam-making thermometer useful here.

Lot’s of firewood and splitting, initial simmering time= 6 hours

Filter the reduction through coffee paper and reduce the syrup down to 60ml, a laboursome 100:1 reduction= 1 hour

The result is 60ml of elixir and the taste is indescribable so i won’t try.

You take all the hours of work and reduce them down to an experience that lasts a few seconds. It’s a labour of love, the love of Birch, the Sugar Maple’s mean cousin.

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2 responses to 'One way of making Birch Syrup'

1. On March 15th, 2011 Diane Harrison said:

   Thanks for the above and the article in The Countryman. In the last four days I have for the first time tapped a silver birch and a walnut tree in my garden. (both very mature trees) However my concern is trying to prevent leakage around the hole during tapping and plugging it afterwards. It seems impossible to stem the leakage completely. Mindful of the risk of the tree being harmed by “bleeding” I have tried rubbing some vegetable fat around the tube plug but sap is still leaking through. Should I do anything else? Thanks
2. On March 16th, 2011 Heath Dawson said:

   It is often best to plug up the hole and start again, cut a ‘cork’ from slightly wider diameter piece of seasoned wood (sap won’t leak out through the shrunken vessels), whittle it to a tight fit and hammer it in. Cut it off flush to the trunk and hammer it a little again, drips will stop either immediately or after a day or so. Clay will probably be best at resisting leaks until it eventually ‘scabs’ over.
   Any wobbling about when drilling will produce a leaky fit with the bung as will drilling an area with deep fissures in the bark.
   Have a look at the last blog entry about birch syrup and note the use of a ‘spigot’ in the picture. It is cut from pipe and sharpened with a file and hammered into a hole that is slightly too small for it to get a good fit. I recall improvising with the outside of a ‘Bic’ pen once. In summary re-drill a straight hole slightly smaller than the bung/spigot you put into it.
   In the scheme of things a little leakage over several days or even a week before it seals itself won’t harm the tree. It is probably more at risk from introducing disease from other trees via the equipment you use (sterilise drillbit inbetween with surgical spirit if tapping several trees). I hope this all helps, it does take a bit of experience to do it efficiently and sounds like you are gaining that. Never tapped a walnut before but had some success with Sycamore.