Birch tar. “Why is it actually needed in such quantities?” - you ask. After all, isn’t it right to grease the wheels of carts? The fact is that tar is a natural insect repellent. Recently, in connection with the “green agenda”, its use in gardens is gaining increasing popularity. For example, when treating potatoes with tar before planting, the tubers will be less damaged by wireworms, and the bushes will be less damaged by the Colorado potato beetle. Tar repels pests with its sharp, specific odor. It is used against mice and moles. So, let's go to the forest to harvest this useful product.
How to get birch tar
And first of all, you should find a suitable fallen birch tree. After all, no one is going to destroy living growing trees for the sake of extracting tar. But fallen and long-sitting birch trunks are not suitable for distilling the product. There is no more tar left in their bark. And to extract it you will need birch bark, or more correctly, birch bark.
But then a suitable fallen tree was found. He was knocked down by a strong wind no more than six months ago. Using careful movements, trying not to hurt yourself, we remove the birch bark. You need to prepare a considerable amount of it.
To distill tar, or as they used to say in the old days, “tar smoking,” you will need two metal containers: a small one for the finished product and a large one with a lid, where the birch bark will be placed. In a larger container, you need to make a hole in the center of the bottom. After which it is filled with birch bark as tightly as possible and closed with a lid.
The next step will be preparing the fire pit. You should dig a hole in the ground large enough to accommodate a small container for collecting tar. A large one is placed on top of it so that the hole made in the bottom is located exactly above the lower vessel. The resulting structure is compacted with earth for stability. And a fire is lit on top.
After 3-4 hours, when the fire burns out, you can check what happened as a result. A considerable amount of this valuable environmentally friendly product – tar – has collected in the lower container.
