Sweet escape

Beneath the papery bark of the birch tree lies a sugary resource, but be warned–it has a shelf life shorter than milk, says John Wright

- Kateryna Kyslitska

I ALWAYS attempt honesty in expressing my opinions on the various wild foods I have championed over the years and I must tell you that there is very little point in collecting birch sap. Nevertheless, I collect it every few years to keep my hand in and enjoy the process enormously. It is, indeed, a fun thing to do and there are ways of using it in the kitchen; simply not very many ways, none of them particularly good. Still…

Tapping a birch tree takes considerable preparation and kit. The general idea is to drill a hole in the tree and direct the sap into a container overnight. You will need some sort of drill, of course, and a drill bit of appropriate diameter to fit the ‘spile’. A spile is a small, tapering tube of metal that has a fairly long lip at one end, vaguely similar to the lip on a jug. Spiles do not seem to be widely available in Britain, although they can be sourced from North America, where they are engaged in the more worthwhile maple-tapping industry. Incidentally, do not attempt to tap field maple, as it is not suitable.