Hawthorn is a popular medicinal berry widely used in folk medicine. Fruits are used primarily for various heart diseases, successfully replacing some medications. Therefore, preparations from hawthorn for the winter are most often made in the form of dried berries. From the raw materials, water infusions and decoctions are then obtained, used both in hot and in cold form. Also, some housewives introduce flour from chopped fruits into the composition of the dough when baking bread, saturating its taste with original fruit “notes”. This article provides some simple ways to dry a hawthorn. Proper observance of the technology will help to maintain the maximum of nutrients in the harvested product.
When to harvest the fruits of hawthorn?
The berries are harvested at full maturity. This usually happens at the end of September or October. Therefore, maroon berries are decorated with sprawling branches up to frost. You can harvest fruits in several stages, cutting off the fruits in batches. In this regard, drying can be carried out in different ways, depending on weather conditions.
How to dry hawthorn outdoors?
The first ripe berries can be harvested in September, when the weather still pleases with warm days. Before drying, sort out the fruits, discarding damaged pests and extraneous debris. Remove sepals and other excess parts from the berries. You do not need to wash the raw materials before, just rub the berries with a soft cloth, and then sift them in a colander. Pour the fruit in a thin layer onto trays covered with paper, filling 1 m 2 of about 3-4 kg of berries. Dry in well-ventilated areas, in the open sun. For 4-5 days of such treatment at an air temperature of 18-25 ° C, the hawthorn will "reach" to readiness. For the night, be sure to bring trays into the room so that morning dew does not get on the berries, the paper needs to be changed daily. Properly dried berries turn red-brown in color, which indicates compliance with the technology.
How to dry a hawthorn in an oven?
The last berries are harvested even under adverse weather conditions (when the temperature drops down to frost, in the rain), which excludes their processing in a natural way. Therefore, hawthorn is dried using gradual heating in an oven or electric dryer. The second option, of course, is much more convenient and practical. But not all housewives have these useful "home helpers", so we will figure out how to dry the hawthorn in an ordinary oven. Pour the fruits prepared as described above onto a baking sheet with a thin layer. Choose a mode of gradual warming up, increasing the temperature from 40-50 ° to 65-70 ° . At the same time, the oven door must be kept slightly ajar, and the berries periodically stirred. After about 3-4 hours, the fruits will be ready. Leave them to cool after turning off the heat inside the oven. Store the finished hawthorn in paper or fabric bags, placing them in well-ventilated rooms with low humidity or in glass containers with lids.