# Survival > Foraging & Wild Edibles >  Beech tree sap

## Camp10

In one of my wild edible books there is a small blurp on tapping beech trees and using the sap much like you would maple.   Has anyone tried this?  There was no more info in the book and I was hoping someone had some first hand info on this.  Thanks.

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## crashdive123

We've got trees on the beach, but sadly, no Beech trees.

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## justin_baker

Weve actually got big leaf maple trees around here, i might tap some. You just cut into it with an axe and put a bucket next to it right? Thats what i do with resin. Is there a better way though?

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## crashdive123

> Weve actually got big leaf maple trees around here, i might tap some. You just cut into it with an axe and put a bucket next to it right? Thats what i do with resin. Is there a better way though?


Nope.  There are a few threads on here about tapping maple trees.  The methods and time of the year are very important.

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## Canadian-guerilla

whenereve i get around to it, i'm gonna try tapping a birch tree for drinking water

youtube has a few  videos about tapping birch's

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## Rick

I have a Birch in my front yard (Yellow, I think) and you can't trim it because the limbs drip large amounts of water then die. Limbs smaller than a pencil will drip a lot of water. I don't think enough to keep you alive (I've never measured it) but certainly enough to get you wet if you stand under it.

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## rwc1969

I'm not sure about beech, etc. but for maple you want to get the sap before the tree begins budding out when temps are below freezing at night and above freezing in the day. This is usually mid to late winter here. The sap gets bitter and has a hard time flowing later on in the season. I haven't tried to tap or drink sap from trees that are already budding out.

An axe is a good idea for survival, but not for the tree. Although that was supposedly the way the indians originally done it.

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## The Real McCoy

I tapped my first beech nut tree today. I am curious on what the taste will be like. I read that beech has been used for healing. However if black walnut taste like black walnuts I assume beech should taste like beech nuts. I also tapped 4 black walnut trees.

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## Roel

I did collect it from birch. 30 liters and boiled it down to 30 cl. It tasted just like maple sirup.

BILD3711.jpg

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## Sneksi

Beech is different from birch. Do not mix them.

Beech syrup you have to make in the spring, hole in the tree has to be 1m above the ground. Beech syrup cures heart diseases. Hard to find it though. If you know where you can buy it please let me know.

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## Rick

Some supporting documentation on the heart disease claims would be helpful.

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## hunter63

> Some supporting documentation on the heart disease claims would be helpful.



That would be interesting.

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## 1stimestar

All my friends are tapping their birch trees right now.  Some just drink the water, some use it for other things, but most use it for making syrup.

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## edr730

It seems that there may be some confusion between the beech and birch. The birch is what has been claimed for the last few years to be medicinal for heart disease, diabetes, obesity etc etc. 

The compound they talk about is Betulin from the birch. Changa has quite a bit of it. The sites that sell the compound are usually from other countries where it is not illegal for them to cite specific studies.

Here's a couple articles about it in general. 
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/221...-heart-disease
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betulin

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## Rick

Thanks for the links! Good information. It's not illegal to cite studies here. You just did.

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## edr730

Thank you. I tried to be concise. Perhaps too much so. I had a more lengthy explanation. The long and the short of it is that if you sell something and you cite studies for curative properties the FDA may decide to stop you from citing studies, charge you a price to be monitored or make you classify it as a drug which could cost you up to 500 million dollars. It's a big axe. This law is not the same in most countries. 
It's not big news that some say that the FDA is controlled by the large pharmaceutical companies. Others disagree and point out that employees of the FDA are limited to how much money that they can accept from the pharmaceutical companies. Let them argue.
All we need to know is that birch and a few other folk remedies are beginning to be very interesting.
Here is another site. The American Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.org/treatment/trea...ls/white-birch

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## randyt

son of a beech, I always figured birch was good stuff

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## 1983

Little FFT an old timer I used to know showed me how to use sumac stalks to make spires out of to tap maple trees. You basically cut lengths out of the stalk and push out the pith in the center with some stiff wire or a nail with the point cut off and then tapper the end you put into the tree.

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## Dave2017

I just discovered that tapping trees is incredibly cheap and easy. 25 feet of 1/4" polyethylene tubing costs less than two dollars at Home Depot. Drill a 15/64" hole about an inch deep into the tree, push the tube halfway in and insert the other end into a gallon jug.

My beech trees (Fagus grandifolia) were gushing sap, so I got some and boiled it down about 10:1. It's very sweet, not even slightly bitter, and has a strong vanilla flavor. Delicious!

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## hunter63

Hunter63 saying Hey and Welcome....
There is an intro section, if you would care to say Hello at:
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...-Introductions

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