With the height of summer, hawthorn, a shrub, begins its active flowering, almost all parts of which are used not only in food, but also for medicinal purposes. Dried flowers, leaves and berries brewed with tea, used in the preparation of compotes and decoctions. Often it is used for cosmetic purposes, for example, as a skin lotion.
Hawthorn is known to have a beneficial effect on overall health, the state of the circulatory system, blood flow and vascular walls, reduces pressure, calms the nerves, etc. To save the hawthorn for the winter as a reserve of vitamins, it is necessary to make a competent preparation.
To do this, you need to know when it is better to start picking, which parts of the plant are useful and which are harmful, whether certain processing is necessary for the berries, how much and under what conditions to dry the flowers. These nuances and details will allow you to save precious herbs for a long time and provide yourself with an excellent healing material for more than one year. Below we consider in detail how to dry the hawthorn at home in the oven, how to do it correctly and what you need to know.
Is it possible to dry the hawthorn in the oven?
In addition to traditional methods of drying hawthorn berries, they can be dried using household appliances that you can find at home, for example with the participation of the oven. It is desirable to have an electric, time-tested and experienced oven with moderate power in the kitchen.
So during drying, you will be sure that all hawthorn berries will lose moisture evenly, and you will spend the minimum amount of electricity. For drying, suitable as flowers, foliage, and hawthorn berries themselves.
There is no fundamental difference between their bushes or wild. Wild hawthorn produces small and less sweet fruits, but in dried form they will bring no less benefit than cultivated garden varieties.
Step-by-step instruction
Now let's take a closer look at the process of drying the hawthorn in the oven.
How to prepare?
Firstly carefully inspect the plant for collection. Ensure that no part of the shrub, including the stems, has been affected by pests, mold or diseases. With the slightest hint of the presence of larvae, gray or "rusty" plaque, blackening on the leaves and other lesions, it is better to abandon the collection of this particular hawthorn bush.
Start watching the bush from May, in time to collect ripe flowers, while unblown buds are still growing. It is necessary to carry out collecting in warm, dry weather. The rainy season, morning or evening is not suitable for this - excessively high humidity, due to which the flowers will dry much longer. Lush inflorescences (corymbose and separate groups of buds) gently cut with a knife or shears, and fold separately from the leaves in a wicker basket or any dry container.
Next, the collected flowers are laid out on a paper towel or parchment for drying in a dark dry place (most often use the attic). In one layer, the flowers are dried no longer than a day. Do not forget to cover them with a layer of pure gauze fabric. It will protect the hawthorn from insects, such as fruit flies or food moths, and protect from dust settling.
With regard to the collection of the fruits themselves, the suitable ripening period is from mid-August until the end of autumn. To dry pick up ripe, dense berries, not spoiled by any defects. High-quality berries have an even, rich yellow, orange or scarlet shade resembling arterial blood.
Naturally, suitable ripe berries of any size, but small ones are better to dry separately from large ones - you will manage the first one much faster. Berries need to be well washed in a colander under running water, wipe with napkins or a towel, and leave for some time to dry off, as is the case with flowers. Pre-drying will take from days to several days.
What to dry?
An electric oven (electric oven) is the best option, but if you have a gas oven, all that remains is to slightly reduce the temperature, fully heat the oven, and only then load hawthorn berries there. You can decompose the berries on a baking sheet or wooden plywood.
How much time to dry?
Probably many of you are wondering: "How to dry the hawthorn in the oven, how much time?", The answer is quite simple - be guided by the number and size of servings of hawthorn, what parts of it you dry - berries or petals. It may take several hours to dry large fruits, and only a half to the flowers and leaves.
What mode?
It is better to choose a moderate or low temperature regime. Hawthorn very sensitive to high temperatures and can simply fry, becoming useless. If there is a ventilation mode, it will be nice to turn it on. Otherwise, be sure to leave the oven door slightly ajar - so excess moisture can freely go outside without accumulating on the berries.
At what temperature?
From the lowest possible temperatures choose about 50-70 ° Cbased on the capabilities of household appliances. It is permissible to slightly increase the temperature if your oven is not too powerful. A temperature of 40 ° C is sufficient for drying other parts of the plant.
While drying the berries, it will be necessary to mix them regularly and make sure that they do not get burnt or stick together. Therefore, on a baking sheet you need to lay out the fruit at a certain distance from each other, in one layer.
How to determine readiness?
Determination of readiness is possible both in appearance and in the hardness of the pulp. Externally, the hawthorn will be wrinkled, reduced by almost 2-3 times, much darker.
Check the berries to the touch, take a small handful in your palm and lightly squeeze them together. If you feel that the hawthorn sticks together, oozes juice, or is not wrinkled enough, then it makes sense to leave it in the oven for another hour or more.
Perfectly dried product will be dry and flexible.. The finished product is sifted and once again checked for the presence of twigs, peduncles and other small debris.
Store berries should be in paper bags and packages.protected from pests, moist warm air, extraneous odors and room dust. In a suitable medium, dried hawthorn can lie for about two to five years without spoiling.
As for dried inflorescences and leaves, such hawthorn can be stored in cardboard boxes lined with parchment or other paper, or linen bags. The room where you put your supplies should be dark, cool, with good circulation of fresh air.
Summarizing
Oven Drying does not require serious preparation, much faster than natural drying in the attic or balcony, and allows you to save most of the nutrients hawthorn.
Before drying, the fruits are cleaned from the stalks and other tails, well washed to protect you and your family from harmful microbes and bacteria. It is not necessary to leave fresh hawthorn for a long time - clean it and immediately dry it.
Observe the temperature frame, do not let the berries burn and do not pull them out of the oven ahead of time. This increases the risk of developing diseases or mold. Equally responsive to the question of what and where to store the resulting stocks. Now, knowing how to dry the hawthorn at home in the oven, you can safely save the miracle of berries for long use.
