Honeysuckle is a shrub that begins to bear fruit in early summer. There are about two hundred species of a plant, but not all of its fruits can be eaten.
Edible berries are similar in appearance and color to a strong waxy bloom on blueberries.
Fully matured, they have a sour or sweet-sour taste and a faint aroma.
Honeysuckle - piggy bank of useful substances
Pleasant taste is not the only advantage of honeysuckle. It is rich in many vitamins, but especially in vitamin C. According to its content, honeysuckle is on a par with lemon. One hundred grams of berries replenish the body's daily need for ascorbic acid. Vitamin P, which also contains fruit, assists in its absorption.
Those who have discovered the taste of honeysuckle, are not afraid of viral infections, problems with blood vessels and the heart. Consumption of berries helps the skin to remain clean and no longer become wrinkled.
Much in the honeysuckle of magnesium - the main assistant in the fight against stress, potassium, which keeps blood pressure in normal, zinc and iodine.
Is it possible to refuse such a tasty and affordable medicine?
You need to constantly keep it in your refrigerator or cabinet to eat a handful of berries or a spoonful of delicacies made from them daily.
Honeysuckle storage methods
The season of picking berries is short. They crumble quickly and need to be recycled. The disadvantage of honeysuckle is that it stays fresh for two or three days. The container with the fruit can be placed on the lower shelves of the refrigerator.
Longer stored those berries, in which the skin and pulp are dense. When the surface of the honeysuckle is thin and tender, it should be eaten or processed the next day on the harvest day or the next morning.
To preserve the fruits for a longer period, you can:
- dry;
- freeze.
In addition, the berries produce tasty and healthy preservation, for example, jelly, jam, sorbet, fruit drink and compote.
Honeysuckle drying and storage
While summer is in full swing, the berries can be dried in the sun. In order for the honeysuckle to reach an optimal consistency, it will take from ten to twelve dry and sunny days.
- We sort out the collected fruits and we clear of impurity. Rinse them under water is undesirable.
- Fold on a flat and clean surface in a single layer.
- Cover with gauze, protecting the berries from insects and birds.
- We reserve it during the daytime under the sun or under a small canopy.
- At night, baking trays with honeysuckle hiding in the pantry.
- We collect dry berries in paper bags or linen bags and send them to the pantry.
When it is impossible to dry the honeysuckle in the open air, you can use an electric dryer. For 10-12 hours at a temperature of 45-50 degrees berries will be ready.
For drying honeysuckle fit and oven. The process is simple:
- Clean and dry the baking sheet with baking paper.
- Pour honeysuckle layer on top.
- Send the baking tray to the oven, setting the temperature at 60 degrees. Until full readiness of berries will take from four to six hours. The oven door should be left ajar.
- Pour the dried berries into a flat dish and let cool at room temperature.
- We send honeysuckle in paper or linen bags. We leave them not fully closed.
Dried honeysuckle can be stored for up to one year. The best place for it is a refrigerator or other cool and dry place. In winter, the berries will survive well on the balcony, if only it is warmed.
It is not recommended to keep dried honeysuckle in an airtight container. This threatens to cause mold.
When the honeysuckle is contaminated and without rinsing it under water is not enough, the berries must be spread out on a paper napkin so that the moisture is absorbed as much as possible. Then the honeysuckle is dried by the methods described above.
Storage of frozen honeysuckle
Like all berries, frozen honeysuckle retains most of the nutrients. Therefore, storing it in this form depends on the capacity of the freezer.
Cooking honeysuckle so:
- We wash the berries and pour them into a colander to drain the water.
- We lay out on a paper towel and leave for an hour. Honeysuckle should dry out completely.
- Spoon the berries on a platter in a small layer (maximum two cm tall) and send to the freezer for two hours.
- Frozen fruits are poured into plastic bags. Tightly close and put back in the freezer.
It is advisable not to fill the bag with a large number of berries. It should be borne in mind that thawed honeysuckle need to use all. It is undesirable to re-freeze the berries, because they will lose almost all of their healing qualities from such a repeat procedure.
In the freezer, the fruit is perfectly preserved until the new harvest and longer.
Honeysuckle is less popular than other berries. But the one who discovered it for himself and consumes regularly, probably felt how these berries are healing.
