• notjvb@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Other hardwoods can be tapped and their sap made into syrup, it’s just that maple is the tastiest, with the Sugar Maple being what we think of when it comes to making syrup. Birch and Walnut are probably the most common alternatives.

    • messem10@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just be careful with burch sap. You might find that you’re allergic to it and it’s pollen. The hives from the pollen is no joke.

      • casino@feddit.nu
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        1 year ago

        Funny thing, in my family we’re all allergic to birch pollen. So before the pollen season we often tap some birch sap and drink to bolster our immune system in advance. Dunno if there’s any science behind it, but in my experience it’s done wonders.

        • Ferris@discuss.online
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          1 year ago

          I think in context, I think you are desensitizing rather than bolstering. 👆 You may have meant that, 👈 but in case you didn’t.

        • null@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          I’ve heard that eating local honey similarly lowers your allergy response to local pollen, and I believed that, so I’ll believe this too.

          • charlytune@mander.xyz
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            1 year ago

            It’s a myth. For a start most people’s hayfever isn’t anything to do with flower pollen, it’s grass and tree pollen and fungal spores. Pollen and spores can be carried by air currents and travel long distances. The flowers your local honey comes from are unlikely to be causing your hayfever. You should buy local honey over commercial honey though because it supports small producers.

      • neontetra@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Interesting — is the birch sap/syrup more allergenic than maple? I’m allergic to birch to some extent maybe more than other trees. But also I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to maple also (and many other trees) but eat maple syrup no problem.

  • AapoL@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know about other countries but in Finland people sometimes extract and drink birch sap. We call it mahla.

  • Knusper@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    You wouldn’t think of it as traditionally delicious, but gum arabic is in lots of foods as a stabilizer.

    • phar@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      In the US they turn it into soda called Birch Beer. It’s delicious

  • The Menemen!@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Mastic resin is very popular in Turkey and (I think) also Greece. Used as a natural additive in stuff like ice cream or puddings, but also as a natural bubble gum.

    • 0101010001110100@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      To add to this, it’s a coniferous tree so mastic resin tastes delicious if you also enjoy coniferous flavours like juniper, rosemary, pine nuts, etc. They also put it in wine and you can get mastic honey. Tastes like a pine forest, in a good way.

      • CulturedLout@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        We used to grab globs of spruce gum off the trees to chew. Pain in the ass to get off your fingers though.

  • tal@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicle

    Chicle (/ˈtʃɪkəl/) is a natural gum traditionally used in making chewing gum and other products. It is collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees in the genus Manilkara, including M. zapota, M. chicle, M. staminodella, and M. bidentata.

      • BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tf
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        1 year ago

        Exactly like that. Idk if it’s still the same, but a couple decades ago I went to a chiclet farm kinda deal in Mexico, and got to try the (cleaned) raw tree gum. Its pretty much a chiclet straight out of the tree, it just doesn’t have much flavor until after processing.

    • BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tf
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      1 year ago

      I didn’t realize Guatemala was such an integral part of Chiclet originally. I wonder if William Wrigley Corp lobbied the government for what became the 1954 coup like United Fruit did.