Urbanibalism

Siphoning birch sap in springtime

A conversation about earth from another planet 1000 years from now: do you remember that silver birch tree? — Anton Chekov, 1899

It’s early spring. The trees are about to bud. People say spring in Amsterdam has been delayed by 40 days this year and apparently it’s not too late to start siphoning some sap from the sweet or silver birch.

The idea to sap a birch is something that only came about after reading the umpteenth references to the birch in Chekov’s writings, a tree much adored in Slavic and Scandinavian cultures. I’m curious if this at all possible in the warmer climes of Amsterdam as birch tree sap-tapping is most usually done in the cooler, more northern zones — Scandinavia, Baltic states, Russia, Alaska. The problem is finding a tree and doing it as inconspicously as possible. The birch trees in Vondel park are a little too much in the public spotlight (there’s a majestical Betula lenta on the north-western side of the Rose Garden).

Just last week, however, I was introduced to a lovely couple on the Witte de Withstraat who’ve kindly allowed me to experiment with their 8 year-old birch in their backyard. So after a bit of research and conversations with some others who had near or distant memories of sap collection, we made the installation with hand drill, a pipe and rubber tubing, some string and duct tape and a empty bottle of spa blauw. The sap started to trickle as soon as I drilled a bit past the bark. The sap tasted like green walnuts with a subtle, lingering sweetness.

Since then, Matteo and I have milked a number of birch tree candidates in the Rembrandt park and Westerpark zones. View the first milking attempt.

One of our concerns however is whether or not there are any harmful pathogens of pollutant matter in the sap. The sap, produced in the roots of the tree could mean that the sap is that which absorbs heavy metals and the like more readily. To be sure, we are now testing the sap with a food testing laboratory for pathogenic microbiological and chemical substances.

Sap and content analysis providing, it might be possible to make some Brich Bread Brew: A muddy brown beer made from birch sap and bread according to Russian recipe of kvass.