Sweet Birch Tree

Years ago I used to hunt with my grandfather from my mothers side. I learn a lot from him in the seemingly short time he was around. One thing I learned was the different things growing in and around the mountains a person could use for nourishment if they needed. I bring this up because on one of those days we happened upon a stand of small birch trees. I had been getting pretty hungry. He takes out his pocket knife and carefully strips the bark from a small branch of the birch. “Chew on this,” he said. “It will make your hunger subside until we get home.” I put the piece of bark in my mouth and was delighted to find that it actually taste pretty good. It’s kind of chewy with a mint taste. “Don’t swallow the bark,” he had said. The juice was all I wanted to use. And it did work. I don’t know that it actually satisfied my hunger but it did make me quit thinking about it.

Now when I go to the woods and feel the need for a refreshing taste. I’ll find a birch, strip off a little bark and can’t help but think about my grandfather. If you have never tasted the bark from a birch tree I would suggest trying it. You may be surprised. If you do though, you want to take the bark from the small dark branches or water sprouts. The new growth in other words. The bark from the main tree holds very little of the refreshing taste. In the photo below you can see the branch I’m talking about. It’s the shoot with the dark bark.

The leaves and trunk are very similar to that of the beech tree except that the tree bark of the birch will be split with long horizontal lines whereas the beech is fairly smooth. Also the birch tree is a lot smaller. If you find one and are unsure just strip a little bark from a branch and smell it. You will know right away if it is a sweet birch.

The photo and the following from Wikipedia…

Sweet Birch (Betula lenta), also known as Black Birch, Cherry Birch, Mahogany Birch, River Birch, or Spice Birch is a species of birch native to eastern North America, from southern Maine west to southernmost Ontario and southern Michigan, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.

Sweet Birch was used commercially in the past for production of oil of wintergreen before modern industrial synthesis; the tree’s name reflects this scent of the shoots.

The sap flows about a month later than maple sap, and much faster. The trees can be tapped in a similar fashion, but must be gathered about three times more often. Birch sap can be boiled the same as maple sap, but its syrup is stronger (like molasses).

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This post has been re-edited. Originally I said that my grandfather was part Cherokee. This turned out to be false and I’m not sure why I thought that all these years. As it was though he had no Indian in him but my grandmother was part Cherokee.
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