Dried chokeberry. Chokeberry: beneficial properties, collection secrets and harvesting methods

If you have a special electric dryer, then the task becomes incredibly easy. All you need to do is:

Place washed and dried berries in one layer in the bowls of the device;
set the temperature to 50 degrees and dry for about three hours;
then reduce the heat to 45 degrees and keep the berries until ready.

The end of drying is determined by the condition of the rowan - if when pressed there are no traces of juice left, then you can put the product in a storage container.

If you don’t have a miracle device, but you want to do everything quickly, then use another kitchen unit. So, how to dry rowan in the oven:

the berries are thinly laid out on a baking sheet;
preheat the oven to 40 degrees, place the rowan there and leave for half an hour;
increase the heat to 60 degrees and keep the chokeberry until completely dry.

Allow the product to cool and place it in containers.

How to dry rowan naturally

If you are not in a hurry to dry the berries, then you can use simple but longer methods. For example, chokeberry berries can be placed on trays in a single layer and placed outdoors so that they are warmed by the sun. At night, the berries should be brought indoors to protect them from dampness and periodically turn them over during the drying process.

If the air outside is not clean - there is a lot of dust, exhaust gases or other pollutants, then you can string tassels of berries on threads and hang them indoors (for example, in the attic or pantry). The place should be ventilated and provide access sunlight. Gradually the rowan will dry completely.

To get more benefits,

collect rowan after the onset of frost;
remove all spoiled berries and rinse the remaining ones thoroughly;
During drying, monitor the color of the fruit - the appearance of reddish or brown shades indicates an incorrect process temperature.

The berries are stored in a glass (or plastic) container, the lid of which must be screwed on.

Drying chokeberries is easy. At proper preparation it can be stored for about eight months. Thanks to this you will be able to receive natural vitamins all winter.

The popularity of this beautiful and healthy berries undeservedly small. Meanwhile, it is well known and recommended to be prepared by herbalists and herbalists. It is thanks to the work of breeders that chokeberry, or chokeberry, grows in gardens. It blooms beautifully, pleases the eye with heavy clusters of black berries, bears fruit abundantly and is not afraid of frost. Dry the collected berries chokeberry It’s not difficult to do at home, you just need to protect it from birds and collect it in time.

Selection and preparation of fruits before drying

The best time to cut chokeberry clusters is early autumn. Best after the first frost. Such fruits are fully ripe and have accumulated all beneficial properties.
If you plan to dry the berries on fresh air and the warmth of the sun, then they should be collected at the end of summer or beginning of autumn, when the weather is a good helper.
For better preservation of dried fruits, chokeberries are harvested only in dry weather, when the dew has subsided.
The collected brushes are disassembled into individual berries, and spoiled ones and those pecked by birds are removed.
Be sure to wash it before drying and let it dry on a cloth.
If you decide to dry the rowan in clusters, hanging it, for example, in the attic, then you should not wash the bunches.

Rules for storing dried fruits

Well-dried berries can be stored in glass jars or plastic containers. The storage container must be tightly closed so that the rowan does not become damp and mold appears.
Try to protect the berries from moisture penetration. You need to choose a warm and ventilated room.
Air-dried fruits store well for up to 8 months.
If the berries are dried in an oven or electric dryer, the shelf life increases to a year.

How to use dried chokeberry

Throughout the long winter, you can cook compotes and jelly from dried fruits, treat yourself and your loved ones with fruit tea. Powder from dried fruits added to baked goods to give the baked goods a special taste.

But the main use of dried chokeberry fruits is to fight diseases:

Dried berries steamed in boiling water will help get rid of headaches.
Brewed fruits will help cope with dizziness.
Can be steamed dried fruits, grind with sugar and take in courses for heart ailments and sclerosis.
An infusion of dried chokeberry fruits will also help with constipation.
Hypertensive patients need dried berries all year round.
If the secretory function of the stomach is impaired, you can simply chew a few dry fruits before eating.
Rowan can restore the lack of iodine and vitamin C in the body. This property is useful for thyroid diseases.
Diabetics should take a decoction of dried berries, which will reduce blood pressure and normalize digestion.
Any fruits of chokeberry, both fresh and dried, are removed bad cholesterol, help maintain the required level hemoglobin and work as an antitumor agent.

How to properly dry chokeberry

The methods for drying chokeberries at home are, by and large, the same as for other berries and fruits. It can be dried in air, in an oven or in an electric dryer.

Drying chokeberries in the oven

The peeled rowan fruits, after draining the water, are laid out on parchment and placed on a baking sheet. Sometimes some housewives dip them in boiling water for a few minutes before placing them on a baking sheet.
Heat the oven not too hot, to about 40 degrees, and dry it for the first half hour. If you immediately place it in a hot cabinet, the inside of the berries will remain raw.
Then the temperature is raised to 60 degrees and dried until the berries are completely dry. The baking sheet must be shaken periodically to turn the berries over and prevent them from burning.

Important addition. If it is difficult for your oven to maintain the recommended temperature, then dry with the door slightly open. oven, and keep an eye on the time - it will be less.

Air drying

For air-drying, the berries must be collected in late summer or early autumn. Then the warm sun will help you dry them outside. There are three ways to do this.

The first method is on a baking sheet:

The disassembled and washed rowan berries should be laid out on a baking sheet or any other suitable flat surface in one layer.
Place the sheets with berries in a sunny place, away from roads and machine dust.
During the day, rowan berries need to be turned over occasionally to dry evenly.
At night, the berries must be removed indoors.

The second method is on a thread:

We do not lay out the berries on sheets, but string them on a strong thread using a needle. You should get such beautiful beads. The bottom should not be made very long so that it does not get tangled.
You can hang such beads on the veranda or in the sun, on a tree.
At night, decorations made from rowan beads should be brought into the house.

It is important that well and properly dried chokeberry does not release juice if you press it with your finger.

The third method is drying chokeberries in clusters:

Before drying, each bunch must be thoroughly inspected and spoiled or pecked berries must be removed. There is no need to rinse the brushes.
Prepared bunches of berries should be hung in the drying room. The main thing is that the chosen place is ventilated and not too hot.
As with the previous methods, if you dry rowan in the open air, at night and in the event of impending rain, you need to put it indoors.
Such rowan can only be preserved until the New Year holidays.

Drying rowan berries in an electric dryer

If you are lucky and have such an electric assistant in your kitchen, then the most difficult thing is to prepare the fruits for drying - disassemble them, rinse them in running water and dry them on a piece of cloth.

Important - try not to spoil your work and not to dry out the rowan. Properly dried rowan fruits become cherry-red, and if you squeeze several berries in your fist, they do not stick together.

If you make a mistake and your fruits become lighter during drying, you should not throw them away. They, of course, have partially lost their beneficial properties, but they will be useful to you in the winter as a tasty sweet preparation.

Properly dried berries will increase your immunity, help cope with infections during the off-season and perfectly cleanse the blood. You definitely need to prepare dried chokeberry, which also works as a good healer, for the whole winter!

How to dry chokeberry? You enter a query into a search engine, read the first article and your eyebrows rise in surprise. The authors of the texts recommend collecting chokeberries only after frost, but drying them in the sun. I wonder where in our climate, after frost, there is such a sun that can evaporate the juice from the fairly dense pulp of the berries? How many days will the chokeberry collect dust on the street? The result will be an incredibly valuable product. With a decent film of all chemical elements.

Gentlemen, use your brains before giving your advice. Otherwise, you will not receive curses from those who follow them. Let's look at how to actually dry chokeberries correctly and debunk other misconceptions.

Oven

Read on. “La-la-la and turn on the oven at a temperature no higher than +45°C with convection.” Hmmm. In the average article, the simplest kitchen stove. And the oven there is also ordinary. Without convection, minimum temperature not lower than +100-120°C. What to do?

Stop blindly following ridiculous advice. The Russian man has always been famous for his guesswork. No convection? Leave the oven door ajar. Having trouble with the temperature setting? Reduce the drying time and stir the berries often during the process. It's very simple.

Just don’t think about throwing whole brushes onto the baking sheet after bringing them from the garden. You can't do without some preparation:

The berries are carefully separated from the bunch.
They sort out garbage and spoiled mountain ash.
Rinse thoroughly under running water.
Place in a sieve or colander.
Scatter on an old towel or piece of unnecessary fabric.
Once the chokeberry is dry, you can begin the drying process.

Try to perform all manipulations with chokeberry as carefully as possible. No, not for fear of losing large number juice It’s just very difficult to wash off and doesn’t wash off the skin for a long time.

How can you tell if chokeberry has dried out? There is no exact schedule or time in seconds. You will have to determine it by touch and by eye. Squeeze a few berries into a fist and open your palm. The rowan trees have not become a clump and are easily separated from each other? So we're ready. Still sticking together? So let them dry some more.

Externally, well-dried chokeberry is dark in color, wrinkled, but with a glossy sheen.

Dryer

For the happy owners of an electric dryer, there are no problems at all. We prepared chokeberries as described above and laid them out on trays. First, the device was turned on for an hour at +55°C; it should be dried at a temperature no higher than +40°C. On average, 3-5 hours are enough, depending on the load.

Fridge

If your unit has a wonderful “but frost” function, then it will perfectly dry chokeberries. The fact is that a device with this function constantly evaporates moisture from the refrigerator compartment so that ice does not freeze on the walls. This means that moisture will disappear from the berries.

Just be sure to place a newspaper or cloth under the chokeberry layer; they will absorb excess juice, if any. This happens very rarely, because chokeberry cannot be called juicy, but after frost it can easily happen.

The berries should be mixed once a day, and spread in a layer of no more than 1-1.2 cm. After about 5-6 days, chokeberries can be stored.

Thread drying

So, what else do extraordinary experts in drying chokeberries advise readers? Yeah, tie the shields into bundles and hang them up. Without washing or anything like that. Use in winter, etc.

I wonder if they know that it is much easier to wash fresh smooth chokeberries than dried, wrinkled ones? And that individual berries dry much faster than those tied in bunches? They also did not say where to hang such blanks so that they dry. And it's October. What to do?

Remember your childhood. Everyone probably made beads from ordinary rowan. Well, the female half of the country for sure. That's what we'll do. The chokeberry was prepared (washed without fail!) and dried to remove any remaining moisture. Now you will need a needle and strong thread. You shouldn’t take a long one, then you yourself will get confused in it and get angry. The optimal length is from 50 cm to 1 meter.

We prepared and started making rowan beads. At the same time, you can ask the children to help, maybe they will like it. So what if they have other interests. Helping my mother as much as I can - that’s what I understand the interest. Not about that now.

Skewered? Now hang it up. You can do it on yourself, of course, but it’s better in the attic, in a dry shed, on a loggia, in a hot pantry. Just don’t, there are such storage rooms. In the corner apartments of the old Khrushchev buildings they are all hot, and half the country lives in such houses.

What to do if none of these premises are available? Well, there certainly is a kitchen. Hang it there. Yes, higher up, the heat gathers under the ceiling. Just don’t place chokeberry beads on the wall. The wallpaper will be painted, the workpiece will result in unforeseen repairs.

A little about storage

After drying, chokeberry must still be preserved. Like any dried fruit, it has very hygroscopic properties. Therefore, it should not be kept in plastic containers, cardboard boxes or paper bags. The best containers would be glass jars with sealed lids. Dried chokeberries can be stored in them for up to 11 months. In second place are tin ones with a tight lid. Dried chokeberries will live quietly in these for up to 7 months. Our hit parade is completed by food-grade plastic containers and special zip-lock bags. Dried fruits can stay in them for up to 4 months.

Just don't put the containers in the refrigerator. Condensation will form on the walls and lid, which will help mold grow inside. A dry, cool, dark place is ideal. For example, the far shelf of a kitchen cabinet or pantry.

How to dry chokeberry? By any described method. Choose the one that's right for you. Just make sure the berries don't lighten during drying. No, they will not become poisonous. Just from useful medicine will turn into sweet preparation. The taste will remain, but healing properties it won't be anymore.

Video: candied chokeberry

Chokeberry and red-fruited rowan are a frequent visitor to personal plots, forests and groves.

But if housewives still know how to “cooperate” with chokeberry, making compotes from it, adding it to pies and cakes, then many do not know how to dry chokeberry at home, and even stock up on chokeberry. It’s worth choosing a couple of recipes for yourself, because rowan berries, even if slightly covered with frost, are very useful for children and adults.

How to properly dry rowan at home

To dry the fruits of forest and garden beauties, you don’t have to work hard. It is enough to turn on the oven, rinse and peel the berries from the stalks, lightly blot with a towel, place on a baking sheet and send to dry.

Is it possible to dry chokeberries in the oven? Of course yes! You need not only chokeberry, but also its “sister” with red fruits. Drying chokeberries in an electric dryer will also not cause any trouble.

But first, a few rules for collecting and preparing berries:

1. Rowan can be collected in September-October, but it can also be collected after the first frost.

2. Harvesting occurs in a cluster manner, that is, the berries and twigs are removed, but after frost, the berries are separated from the clusters without problems.

3. The fruits are harvested on a quiet and sunny day; it is better if the bushes were blown by the wind a couple of days before - this way there will be less cobwebs and moisture.

4. Fruits collected in September are good for drying, but are almost unsuitable for compotes - they are slightly bitter. But November fruits, caught by frost, are already good for jam and compotes.

The most delicious is chokeberry. Preparations for the winter: drying and cooking do not take much time, and the berries can be combined with apples and other fruits.

Krasnoplodka, on the other hand, “does not like” to be combined, as it gives all dishes a slightly tart taste. And now more about how to dry fruits.

Drying chokeberry

The process is either naturally in the sun or in the oven. If this is drying brushes, then you can hang them on a string and leave them in a ventilated room (kitchen) for long time. There will be no inconvenience, especially when the wire or fishing line is stretched under the ceiling. But you can always remove the brush and put it in tea or compote.

It’s a good idea to dry chokeberries in electric and gas dryers. Installation temperature regime medium, up to +70 C. It is no longer necessary to go higher, otherwise the fruits will dry out and begin to crumble. But if this happens, feel free to put the berries in a coffee grinder, it will be excellent flour, which is good to add to baked goods.

How to dry rowan in the oven

How to dry chokeberry in an electric oven at home:

1. Rinse and dry the berries.

2. Turn on the oven to warm up to 60 C.

3. Place dry berries on a baking sheet and place in the oven.

4. Dry for about 6 hours until the fruits no longer stick together when lightly squeezed in the palm of your hand.

The question of how to properly dry rowan at home in the oven has been sorted out. Red fruits are dried in the same way, but there is also the option of withering. To do this, pre-sorted berries are washed, sprinkled with sugar, and set to release the juice. After 20 hours, the juice is drained, sugar is added again and left for another day. Then mix all the syrup, boil, boil the berries in it for about 10 minutes, strain and place the hot fruits on parchment. Place in the oven to dry for half an hour at a temperature of 60 C. The drying procedure is repeated twice, then the berries are cooled and you can eat!

How to dry rowan in an electric dryer

Drying chokeberry at home allows the use of an electric dryer. To do this, place the prepared berries on a baking sheet in one layer, turn on the unit at 60 C and dry the fruits for about 4 hours.