How to dry rose hips and preserve all the beneficial properties?

In order to maintain immunity and saturate the body with vitamins all year round, including in the cold winter, it is not necessary to take special medications, you just need to learn how to dry rose hips. This manipulation implies a certain specificity, but is quite feasible at home.

Processing berries can be carried out in the oven, a special electric dryer or in the fresh air. The result is a product that can tolerate long-term storage. Moreover, in terms of the content of useful components, it will in no way be inferior to fresh rose hips. From a universal blank, it is customary to cook compotes, infusions, preserves, decoctions or simply add to tea.

How to prepare rose hips for drying?

Before drying the dogrose, it is necessary to carry out its assembly and processing. It is recommended to do this yourself, otherwise the result may not be the one for which the calculation was.

Regardless of how the berries will be dried for the winter, they need to be collected as follows:

1. For subsequent harvesting, it is better to choose slightly unripe dense fruits of bright orange or red color, slightly acidic and astringent to the taste. They contain twice as many vitamins as in a mature product, and they are stored at home much better.
2. The best time for picking berries is from the end of August until the first frost.
3. After assembly, you need to immediately start drying the berries, it is not recommended to store the dog rose for a long time without proper treatment.
4. When collecting the product, it is recommended to give preference to large berries with sepals sticking out in different directions at the peduncle.
5. Assembly and subsequent drying must be carried out together with the stalks, they contain a significant amount of vitamins and beneficial components.

Tip: Do not collect rose hips in the vicinity of roads and industrial enterprises. It does not absorb harmful substances and will not cause any harm to health, but it will not succeed.

The temperature at which it is best to dry the rosehip in the oven and electric dryer

The process of drying berries in an oven or an electric dryer is not difficult, the main factor here is the temperature of exposure. Even its slight excess can lead to the destruction of all useful components, as a result of which the rosehip will become just a pleasant food supplement to taste.

To prevent this, you need to remember the following:

1. The temperature in the oven during processing should range from 45ºС to 60ºС.
2. Processing of fruits in a special dryer is carried out at a temperature of from 40ºС to 70ºС.

If at home it is not possible to provide such parameters and or to track them, then it is better not to risk it and use the option with conventional drying in the fresh air. It will take more time, but will not reduce the quality of the product.

How to dry the dog rose in the oven?

This is the best option for a modern house equipped with appropriate equipment. To properly dry the rosehip for the winter in the oven, you need to perform the following manipulations:

• We sort out the berries, check for quality, throw out the bad fruits. It is strictly forbidden to wash rose hips! Fruits and without this will be quality processed.
• We lay the berries on a baking sheet, evenly distributing them on the surface with one layer. We put them in the oven, preheated to 45-50ºС.
• We keep the dogrose in the oven for about 8 hours, gradually raising the processing temperature to 60 ° C. In this case, the cabinet door must be kept slightly ajar so that the moisture exiting from the berries does not linger in a small space. Occasionally shake the pan, but do not touch the fruit with a spoon or hands.

If all the manipulations were done correctly, then the rosehip, harvested for the winter, will only wrinkle, but will not change its color. Darkened berries indicate an excess of the recommended temperature. They are also useful, but noticeably inferior in taste.

Features of drying rose hips in an electric dryer and in the fresh air

The procedure is further simplified if there is a special dryer at home - a dehydrator. Berries are also cleaned of debris, picked, and without wet processing are sent to a functional device. Drying can be carried out at a minimum temperature, then the process will take at least 9-12 hours. If you use the maximum performance, it will take no more than 6-8 hours to dry, but the benefits in such fruits will be less. If the berries were dried correctly, then they will easily break in the hands, but not fall apart into crumbs.

In extreme cases, at home, you can use the traditional drying option, which implies the rejection of high temperatures:

1. We sort through the berries, slightly shorten the stalks.
2. We lay the fruits on plywood, a volumetric tray or a newspaper in one layer and place in a dry and dark place. The effect of ultraviolet radiation is detrimental to useful components in the composition of rose hips. An additional important factor is the quality ventilation of the room.
3. In such conditions, the berries will have to be kept for at least 2-4 weeks. Only then will they evenly dry out and be able to hold out all winter.
4. When the fruits begin to break without difficulty, transfer them to a cardboard box with a lid and hold there, without opening, for at least 4-5 days. So the berries get rid of residual moisture.

It remains only to send the workpiece for storage and you can enjoy a useful product all winter.

How to store rosehip dried for the winter?

It is necessary to be able to not only properly dry the dogrose, but also know the conditions under which the workpieces should be stored. The big mistake of many housewives is that they store fruits in glass or plastic jars under the covers. In fact, it’s better to put them in canvas bags at home. In extreme cases, on glass jars, but they need to be closed with a cloth, bandaged with a rope.

We advise you to read an article about how to dry hawthorn