How can I dry a hawthorn for the winter at home?

Hawthorn is not only a prickly hedge that pleases with its beauty during the flowering period, but also a very useful product. There are several ways available to dry the hawthorn, thanks to which you can harvest the fruits of the plant for the winter. Then the berries can be added to tea, cook compote and coffee drink from them.

No less popular are infusions, decoctions and hawthorn jam, prepared at home. The use of the resulting products has a positive effect on the state of the heart system and blood vessels, and helps to get rid of the effects of chronic stress and insomnia. The main thing is that the harvest is collected from shrubs remote from factories, highways and industrial enterprises.

How to dry hawthorn flowers?

Very few know that not only berries, but also the petals of hawthorn inflorescences are distinguished by a pronounced therapeutic effect. It is not difficult to procure the product, you only need to perform the following manipulations in sequence:

1. The hawthorn blossoms in May, but only a few days, so you need to catch the moment. Only dried flowers with whole petals without rot and traces of the presence of insects undergo assembly. Wet petals are not suitable, it is difficult to quickly dry them without rotting.
2. Products are collected in whole inflorescences or petals, stacked in a bucket or basket, elements cannot be tamped. It is better not to keep them in the bag, the flowers will not live up to the house, if they are blocked in a warm and airless space.
3. Producing a pleasant aroma, hawthorn actively attracts insects, so the crop must be shaken regularly, sorting through the flowers.
4. Immediately after assembly, you need to start drying the products at home. To do this, lay out the petals on a paper substrate in one layer. If you cover them with a layer of gauze or a very thin cloth, then you can not be afraid of insects.
5. The design is placed in a dark, warm place with a good level of air movement. As the petals dry, mix. The product will be ready in about 7-10 days.

Tip: The process will be significantly simplified and accelerated if you use an electric dryer to process the petals. Manipulation is carried out at a temperature not higher than 40ºС. Time depends on the quality of the flowers and ranges from two to six hours.

The finished product must be stored in cloth bags, containers made of wood, cardboard or glass. But you do not need to close them tightly, it is better to use a cloth fixed with a rope instead of a lid. Shelf life of the workpiece exceeds 2 years.

Tip: If the aroma from the petals disappeared before the expiration date approached, it is better not to eat the product. But you can add them to the bath, homemade scented candles. Under the influence of high temperatures, the remains of useful substances will come out, filling the atmosphere of the house.

Recommendations for the collection of hawthorn berries and methods for drying them

Before drying hawthorn for the winter, it must be properly collected. The optimal time is the period from the end of August to the end of September. Some believe that it is better to collect and store hawthorn collected during the first frost, the main thing is that the berries are bright red, burgundy or orange. Experienced procurers of this product recommend initially sorting the product by color, and then drying and storing it separately.

Immediately before the start of the manipulation, the fruits must be sorted out, cleaned of the shields, and remove the unripe or low-quality berries. You do not need to wash the hawthorn!

How to dry a hawthorn in an oven:

• We place the berries on a clean and dry baking sheet in a uniform uniform layer and place in the oven, preheated to a temperature of 60 ° C. We cover the door, but not completely, otherwise the moisture coming out of the fresh fruit will accumulate in the enclosed space.
• There is no exact date for preparing berries at home, the quality of the product will have to be determined empirically. When the fruits are slightly deformed and change color, we take one berry and squeeze it. If it is soft, then continue drying.
• There is another verification method. We take several berries at once and squeeze them in a fist. Finished products do not secrete juice and do not stick together. Otherwise, we keep them in the oven for some time, rather than trying to bring them to the desired state by pouring them into a box.

When planning the harvesting of hawthorn and storing it at home, it must be taken into account that the dried product will have no more than a quarter of the outgoing mass, the rest of the weight will go away with moisture.

If for some reason the use of the oven is not available, you can dry the berries in the fresh air. In this case, they are also sorted, cleaned, laid out in one layer on trays covered with paper. Washing before drying is contraindicated. To dry and store pure fruits, you need to alternately wrap handfuls of berries in a cloth and rub them in your hands without pressing.

Drying is best done outdoors by placing trays in a shaded area. At night they need to be cleaned into the room, otherwise the dew that has fallen will spoil all efforts. Tray paper needs to be changed daily. With an abundance of insects, the fruit is allowed to cover with gauze. Such a drying will take several days, but the value of the product will be no less than with rapid intensive processing.

How to store dried hawthorn berries at home?

The finished product can be stored for up to two years, provided it is placed in cloth bags, glass jars or cardboard boxes covered with cloth. Plastic containers will have to be abandoned. Finished products from hawthorn should be consumed within 3-5 days, for this reason it is not recommended to harvest large quantities of jam or jam immediately. This does not apply to alcohol tinctures, which should stand for several days, and sometimes weeks, before use.

The benefits of hawthorn have been proven for a long time, but the valuable components in the fruits and petals of the plant are preserved only with proper processing. You should not buy finished products in pharmacies or with your own hands, only with all your manipulations you can count on getting a high-quality composition.

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