THE  LIFE - SAVING  BIRCH  TREE

Yes, they do grow in the South, as Well, and I have pictures to prove it.

         1) SPEAKING OF WARMTH - BOUNTIFUL BIRCHBARK

         2) A SPAGHETTI THAT GROWS ON TREES

         3) BACKWOODS TEA

         4) HOW TO OBTAIN BIRCH SYRUP

THE LIFE SAVING BIRCH TREE

         Many people can recognize the graceful Birch tree with its peeling bark. Take note of this information, it could save your life. Birch bark can be used to start a fire in wet weather, the under layer of bark can be eaten, cooked or raw, and you can even take birch syrup from the tree. -Paul

From: How to Stay Alive in the Woods / by Bradford Angler ISBN: 0684831015 Publisher: Simon & Schuster pages 31-33 & 117-119

(Birch Bark)

         Its Bark, enough of which can be pulled harmlessly out in small dry wisps by the fingers alone, is unexcelled for starting campfires under every sort of adverse condition. Great sections of the bark are valuable in the farther places as a flexible emergency waterproofing material. It will and does serve for utensils, shelters, that most graceful of watercraft, and even for clothing.

1) SPEAKING OF WARMTH - BOUNTIFUL BIRCHBARK

         Snow, certainly, imposes but a scant handicap to starting a camp fire in birch country. No more does rain for that matter, as you can substantiate if you have ever arbitrarily dipped birchbark into a lake, touched the pronged flame of a match to a frayed corner, and had the singular satisfaction of watching the strip still crackle into flame.

         The graceful tree need not even be disfigured, for it is sheathed with layer after layer of tissue--thin bark, enough shreds of which can be peeled free by the fingers alone to start under favorable conditions any fire we may want to build.

         Can one ever forget the first occasion when alone in the murmurous forest he heaps that initial handful on a cleared bit of ground, leans a wigwam of small dry softwood self-consciously above it, adds with increasing hesitation now a few larger sticks, and then feels deliciously stabbing his nostrils the first sweet black wisps of smoke when that single match stirringly catches hold.

When the Woods are Wet

         When you are in the deep forest and it's maybe drizzling, you start with the same inflammable wisps, but next to them you lean and crisscross larger ribbons of birchbark. These can also be secured by the finger alone, although it will be easier, unless there may be a reason for not so doing, to cut the tree lengthwise, pry up a long roll of bark, and pull that around and off. The thick sheet thus obtained can be then ripped to narrow strips which will burn much more readily than would the intact section.

         In more extreme circumstances, you get so that you commence almost automatically to lay a broad sheet of birchbark in as sheltered a nook as appears handy. Atop this go the shreds and the stouter fragments, and these you may cover with still larger portions. The small and then the bigger pieces of dry softwood go up in teepee formation, forming a compact but well ventilated peak through which the flames can hungrily climb. Rectangles of birchbark finally roof the pile, blocking out wind storm.

         The time comes to light the match. You realize you must hold it so that whatever air currents reach it will run the flame down the match stem where will be the initial fuel on which to feed. Perhaps you'll face the wind with your two hands cupped in front of the match. Perhaps you'll elect to lie between the wind and the pile, using your body and perhaps the opened nap of a mackinaw as a barricade.

2) A SPAGHETTI THAT GROWS ON TREES

         The widely distributed birches have culinary uses. The inner bark is especially sweet and sustaining, being credited with saving actual hundreds of lives under emergency conditions on this continent alone. This cambium (under bark) is enjoyable raw. It is also bland enough either to chop into bits or to cut into spaghetti-like lengths for adding to soups and stews. It retains its aromatic spiciness even when dried for storing or carrying.

3) BACKWOODS TEA

         Young leaves and twigs, the soft formative tissue between wood and bark, and the thin bark covering the roots are all steeped in hot water to make a favorite backwoods tea. When we sip this beverage, which has the perfume and flavor of wintergreen, and are perhaps thus stimulated to recall the other virtues of the birch, it is difficult not to agree that particularly where civilization is near it is unfortunate whenever this harmonious tree is unnecessarily disfigured.

4) HOW TO OBTAIN BIRCH SYRUP

         (Though a little flowery in language, the author speaks of making holes in Birch bark with a punch, or gimlet, that is hollow, or gashing it with an axe or making holes with a knife. Simple tin cans hung on wires and pegged to the bark, or hung on the gimlet, catch the sap. Apparently the Birch syrup is not as thick as maple. -Paul. )

Quoting the author:

         "Heavenly concoction," Dudley Shaw promised one spring day up on the Peace River. "I'II stow a gimlet in my pack when I prowl up the first of the week to retrieve a couple of traps that got frozen in. Noble lap, birch syrup is. Glorious on dippers.

         The old trapper, who as mentioned in At Home in the Woods is the happiest man Vena and I have ever known, left instructions about preparing some containers. These could have been improvised from birchbark itself, but tomato cans to which we attached wire bails worked out handily enough. Hung on nails driven above each tiny hole Dudley made with his gimlet, the bright buckets echoed with the dripping flow of watery sap. Wooden pegs could have secured the containers below ax gashes or holes bored with a knife.

         "You'd better amble out this way regularly to see that these don't overflow," Dudley Shaw cautioned, eyes blinking good humoredly behind thick spectacles. "Keep the sap simmering cheerfully on back of the stove.

Would the procedure hurt the trees?

         "No, no." Our nearest neighbor shook his bead. 'The plunder will begin to bog down when the day cools, anyway. Then well whittle out pegs and drive them in to close the blinking holes. Everything will be noble.

          Everything was, particularly the birch syrup. It wasn't as thick as it might have been, not even after a great deal of cooking. There also seemed to be an unfortunately small amount. Yet what remained was sweet, delicately spicy, and more than ordinarily delicious. If one is ever seeing emergency sustenance in the spring, birch syrup may be well worth the time and effort if only for its psychological lift.

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