How can you dry hawthorn for the winter at home?

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

No less popular are infusions, decoctions and jam of hawthorn, prepared at home. Consumption of the resulting products has a positive effect on the state of the cardiac system and blood vessels, allowing you to get rid of the effects of chronic stress and insomnia. The main thing is that the harvest is harvested from bushes far from factories, highways and industrial enterprises.

How to properly dry hawthorn flowers?

Very few people know that not only the berries, but also the petals of hawthorn inflorescences have a pronounced therapeutic effect. Preparing the product is not difficult at all, you just need to consistently perform the following manipulations:

1. Hawthorn blooms in May, but only for a few days, so you need to catch the moment. Only dried flowers with intact petals without rot or traces of insects are harvested. Wet petals are not suitable; it is difficult to dry them quickly without rotting.
2. Products are collected in whole inflorescences or petals, placed in a bucket or basket; elements cannot be compacted.It is better not to keep them in a bag; the flowers will not survive to the house, being locked in a warm and airless space.
3. Emitting a pleasant aroma, hawthorn actively attracts insects, so the crop should be shaken regularly, sorting through the flowers.
4. Immediately after assembly, you need to start drying the products at home. To do this, lay the petals on a paper backing in one layer. If you cover them with a layer of gauze or a very thin cloth, you will not be afraid of insects.
5. We place the structure in a dark, warm place with a good level of air movement. Stir the petals as they dry. The product will be ready in approximately 7-10 days.

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

The finished product should be stored in fabric bags, containers made of wood, cardboard or glass. But there is no need to seal them hermetically; it is better to use a cloth secured with a rope instead of a lid. The shelf life of the product exceeds 2 years.

Advice: If the aroma from the petals disappears before the expiration date has passed, 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 remaining nutrients will be released, filling the atmosphere of the house.

Recommendations for collecting hawthorn berries and methods for drying them

Before drying hawthorn for the winter, it must be properly collected. The optimal time is considered to be 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 producers of this product recommend initially sorting the product by color, and then drying and storing it separately.

Immediately before starting the manipulation, the fruits need to be sorted, cleared of scutes, and unripe or low-quality berries removed. There is no need to wash hawthorn!

How to properly dry hawthorn in the oven:

• Place the berries on a clean, dry baking sheet in an even, homogeneous layer and place in the oven, preheated to a temperature of 60ºC. We close the door, but not all the way, otherwise the moisture coming out of the fresh fruit will accumulate in the enclosed space.
• There is no exact time for preparing berries at home; the quality of the product will have to be determined experimentally. When the fruits are slightly deformed and change color, take one berry and squeeze it. If it is soft, then continue drying.
• There is another verification method. Take several berries at once and squeeze them in your fist. Finished products do not release 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 is necessary to take 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 along with the moisture.

If for some reason the oven is not available, you can dry the berries in the fresh air. In this case, we also sort them out, clean them, and place them in one layer on trays covered with paper. Washing before drying is contraindicated.To dry and store clean fruits, you need to wrap handfuls of berries one by one in a cloth and rub them in your hands without pressing.

Drying is best done outside, placing trays in a shaded area. They must be removed indoors at night, otherwise the dew that falls will ruin all your efforts. The paper on the trays should be changed daily. If there is an abundance of insects, the fruits can be covered with gauze. Such drying will take several days, but the value of the product will be no less than with quick intensive processing.

How to properly store dried hawthorn berries at home?

The finished product can be stored for up to two years, provided it is placed in fabric bags, glass jars or cardboard boxes covered with cloth. Plastic containers will have to be abandoned. It is better to consume finished hawthorn products within 3-5 days; for this reason, it is not recommended to prepare a large amount of jam or jam at once. This does not apply to alcohol tinctures, which must sit 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 ready-made products in pharmacies or from hand; only if you carry out all the manipulations yourself, you can count on receiving a high-quality composition.

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