early spring as the buds start to form is the best time as the trees stert to push nutrients up to the tips.
birch, maples and sycamores produce a sweetish drinkable clear fluid. to make syrup it really needs a lot of reducing.
one of the best drinks is spruce tip tea made with birch sap.
to collect it you cut a small notch in the bark down to the sapwood and make a peg to hold the cut open, the sap will drip into your pot. its best to drip through a cloth like a mossie head net to stop debris getting in.
I have seen a more destructive way which I gather is the commercial way and thats to drill a six inch hole with an auger and use a hollow stick to gather then hammer a wooden plug into the hole to seal and protect the tree. like us an open cut can cause infection so pressing or sealing the hole afterwards is a good thing to do.
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