How to dry hawthorn at home

In winter, sometimes you want something like that! Usual sweets are tired, compotes have already been tried ... But is it possible to drink tea from hawthorn? Where to get? From the box. They probably forgot that they dried the fruit in the fall and tidied it up in a dark, dry place for such cases.

Not stocked, do not know how to dry a hawthorn. Yes, it’s very simple! More time will be spent on preparation. Read, write, useful in the fall.

Cooking hawthorn for drying

Berry picking begins in late August and ends ... in winter. Of course, it is better not to allow severe damage to the hawthorn frost. Such raw materials will be scary brown, watery and tasteless. Gather ripened fruits of beautiful color. Red, burgundy. Light do not take, they have not yet ripened.

They bring all this good home. There begins the most tiring stage. Sort the berries, cleaning them from tails and tails. By the way, some sources still recommend throwing out mold, spoiled and deformed berries. A logical question arises: why did you even take them and put them home? What rot do you need? Unless greedy grabbed.

There are recommendations not to wash hawthorn. And someone’s? In dirty more vitamins probably. Even if the raw materials were collected in an ecologically clean place (where can I find it now?), The dust is omnipresent. Wash hawthorn definitely! It is not necessary to rub it much, but in a sieve or colander it is advisable to rinse.

Then the berries are laid out on a paper or cloth towel to dry the remaining water. If you don’t eat washed one after another, then sit down and wipe each berry with a handkerchief. Now they are starting to dry.

Tip. You can try squeezing the seeds from the hawthorn with a tool for cherries and olives. But practice shows that this is a bad idea. Too much pulp is lost in the process.

Where to dry the hawthorn

Dry the hawthorn in several ways.

On open air. Hawthorn is poured onto pallets covered with paper in one layer. They put it on the street, but shade it from direct sunlight. From above it is desirable to cover with gauze from wasps and other insects.

In good weather, drying lasts about 6-8 days. The paper will have to be changed daily. From time to time it is necessary to stir up the berries. At night, the pallets are cleaned into the house so that the dew does not destroy all efforts.

Hawthorn is considered ready when it loses weight up to 75%, becomes wrinkled, maroon and hard to the touch.

Tip. If the weather is cool, the hawthorn can be dried in the attic or in a warm barn.

In the room. If at the time of picking berries the central heating is already working in the dwelling, then the hawthorn can be dried directly on the battery.

Raw materials are prepared as described above. Then they pour it into such containers that will fit on the radiator, to fall off without fear. Paper down also have to be laid. The rest of the process is no different from drying in the open air.

Daily litter replacement, tedding. True, in the house you can not hide from insects and not hide from dew. But pets will have to brush off. Everywhere they stick their curious wet nose. They can also dump your workpieces onto the floor.

It is difficult to even call the drying time approximately. It all depends on the temperature of the batteries. Readiness is determined empirically. They touched, chewed. Hard and dry? So you can clean it for storage.

Tip. Dry the hawthorn until tender, plus another 1 day. So your stocks will be able to lie up to 2 years in normal conditions, and will not grow moldy in the first month.

In the electric dryer. The fastest way, preserving the maximum amount of vitamins and nutrients. Convenient in that you can simultaneously dry several kilograms of hawthorn.As much as your dryer holds.

The temperature is set no higher than + 60 ° C, the pallets are swapped every hour. The lower one is put up, the rest are shifted one down. Of course, paper is not needed, and the preparation of berries is no different from the above.

The approximate drying time depends on the capacity of your dryer. As a rule, it is no more than 14 hours when the device is fully loaded. Readiness is determined visually and again by touch. Beautiful, firm? So it's time to shoot.

Tip. Do not exceed the drying temperature. Hawthorn dries faster, but the quality of the finished product may be affected. Yes, and vitamins are destroyed.

In the oven. The baking sheet is covered with parchment paper. It is desirable - siliconized, practically nothing sticks to it. Hawthorn is poured in one layer, put in the oven. The temperature is set to + 65 ° C.

The door must be left ajar so that evaporating moisture can freely come out. Berries need to be mixed periodically. This will allow them to dry out more evenly.

Estimated drying time ... unknown. It all depends on the moisture content in the raw materials and the volume of the oven. But definitely no more than 6 hours one baking sheet.

Some sources recommend checking readiness with a compression test. You need to take a handful of berries and squeeze them in a fist. Unclench and see ... palm burn! No, of course you should try to get burned at such a temperature. But the result of such a test can be very unreliable. Allegedly raw materials stick together. Well yes. A small, dry old woman will squeeze a hawthorn in her hand or a hefty young woman of about 30. What’s sticking in there?

Do not invent puzzles for yourself. They took this handful of hawthorn and cut it with a knife. Happened? So you need to dry the workpiece again. The attempt failed, and the berry flew to the other end of the room? Take the baking tray out of the oven immediately, it is time.

Tip. If your oven allows, then load several baking sheets into it at once. In this case, things will go much faster than drying one at a time. Only once an hour, swap them in a bottom-up fashion.

In fridge. The method of cold drying is called. This method is suitable for those who have not yet got an oven or gas in the house from a cylinder, and not centralized. Or there is no attic with a barn, there are nowhere to put trays on the street. But you never know the reasons! For this purpose, you will have to allocate space on the shelf or even take it whole.

Newspapers in two layers are laid on the selected pallet. Then pour hawthorn in one layer. Top is covered with a layer of newspapers or a cotton cloth. Even ordinary gauze will do.

Now all this construction needs to be put on the shelf in the refrigerator. And leave there for about 5 days. The lower layer of the newspaper is changed daily, the upper one can be left the same. Mixing is welcome, but not required. Everything is already transformed when replacing the litter.

Willingness is determined by the usual touch method. The berries should darken, greatly diminish in size and become hard. Even a weak softness indicates that the hawthorn is unfinished. Leave the pan in the refrigerator for another 2-3 days.

Tip. This method only works in refrigerators with auto-defrost function (but frost). Old Soviet refrigerators do not have this advantage, so this focus will not work in them.

How to dry a hawthorn? It turns out that it is very simple. Choose any suitable method, and in winter throw berries into the teapot and enjoy the wonderful fortified and aromatic tea.

Video: how to dry the hawthorn in the oven