Ahhh, spring. Its here! And so is all the new growth around us. That is my cue to go out and find all the new buds or fresh twigs that I can use for drinks and tonics. I will admitt that I recieved and email and was reminded of a tonic that I used to make for years. And then forgot. So this year I have decided to make it again. Birch Spring Tonic. I will say first off, if you can not take asprin, then please do not drink this. With that said lets get started and go pick some birch twigs. The kind you want is the new buds, or as close to bud as you can get. This has the most sap in it. You can feel the new sap sticky when you touch the twigs. Thats how you know its fresh and ready for this tonic. Cut a handful of twigs then take home and rinse very good with cold water. Do not use hot water because that will make the sap run before you want it to. What you will need at home is a litre jar or quart jar with lid and a metal knife, water and your twigs. Then place your twigs in the jar, put the metal knife in also and poor your boiling water on the knife. This is important, because the knife will absorb the shock to the twigs and not cook them. Also its a trick to stop glass jars from breaking when adding boiling water. When removing the knife, be very careful it will be very very hot. So take care. Next lay the lid on top and not cap all the way. After about an hour then you can cap fully and let stand at least 4 hours but up to 8 is better. Drink and enjoy. The taste will have a minty flavor from the sap. Add honey or what ever sweetner you choose if needed, it won't hurt it at all. I prefer honey. Will revive the cells in your body and give you an all over good feeling of well being. The same twigs can be used over and over, talk about recycling right out of nature. So when you feel good and don't think you need the drink, then compost them. This is a one time deal pretty much, after that its hard to find twigs that are tender until next spring. So take advantage of it now. Isn't that spring is all about, getting our engines revved up for gardening.
We don't have Birch trees around here, is there anything else I could make the tonic from? I have dried birch leaves, would that work? The warm weather we are having is really starting to drag me down.
I have two silver birches in the garden so I think I'll give them a prune and try your drink Biita. Thanks for the detailed information and pictures.
Toni, its really the sap you want and the very thin layer of bark under the outer thin skin. Thats where the nutrients are for this. The buds are what has the asprin in it, but also what gives the drink a little more flavor. I honestly don't know what else can be used, but basically probably any try that gives off edible sap. Probably the flavors would be very different also. The leaves won't work for this. Sorry. The Skandinavian version of root beer is called Birch Bark Beer. Its the first layer of bark after you peel the silver paper away. Takes a long time to make but dang it is so good. Eileen thats what i made this drink from the Silver Birch. Just keep adding boiling water when you finish a jar and its will still have all the taste as the first glass you drink.
So interesting, Biita. Do you know how to make tea out of Echinacea and does it have the same effect?
This was a great demo. There are lots of "forgotten" things like this that you do. Well, forgotten here, anyway. I'm glad you showed this Tonic how-to. You always do so many interesting things with foraged wild bits.
Thanks for sharing! We have a lot of birches around, so I'll give this a try. We have a lot of the ground mint here (Gaulteria procumbens)...I chew the leaves right from the plant, but it's also great in tea. ( photo / image / picture from kaseylib's Garden )
thanks all!! Daisybeans we don't have sassafrass or figs here. I really don't know. But i have heard that sasafrass was kind of like the rootbeer? and was tea used for settling upset stomachs at one time. GG the echinacea is very easy to make tea out of. Pick the heads, rinse or just shake. Boil water and add to a cup. take the fresh heads or you can dry them also for longer storage, put about a good tablespoon full in a tea strainer and add to the cup. let it stand about 5 minutes then enjoy. Add sweetner if needed. Sjoerd now that i'm in the south there is alot more that i can learn. I grew up in the Arctic so alot of what i know is based on that part of the world. This will be so fun for me down here to learn. Droopy can help me too, with what i don't know. Kasey, i have never seen that up north, but i am going to keep my eyes open for that. What trees does it seem to grow near, or what kind of habitat. Mint tea is very good. the birch tea that i made there has a hint of mint, but more of the birch bark is in the taste. Its a unique combination but very good.
Biita, your herb/plant knowledge is fascinaing. Motivated me to do some research on sassafras tonic since I don't have access to birch but have plenty of sassafras! Definately has similar tonic benefits to birch. But all the recipes I've seen use the bark of the root, rather than the shoots. Interesting. Here are a couple links about sassafras for anybody who was wondering! http://hillbillysavants.blogspot.com/20 ... tonic.html http://www.southernangel.com/food/sassafras.html
Very intresting sites. I see there is alot of the same qualities between the two. But i had a good laugh from the second link, the last recipe. Quarreling Recipe. lol. Great idea!! The problem with that tho for me is my husband and I are so layed back and easy going that if i had to pick one of us that would pick a fight it would be me. I'm the more high strung of the two of us. lol. So maybe i should make a bottle and save it incase someday we were to ever have a fight. Has not happened yet, but well better safe than sorry. lol.
