Chokeberry or chokeberry is a berry brought to Europe in the 18th century from North America. It began to be planted in Russia, first for decorative purposes, and already in the 20th century, chokeberry became widespread as a fruit and medicinal plant. The shiny black fruits of this tall shrub, juicy and tart in taste, contain a storehouse of vitamins; they can be dried and frozen for the winter, compotes, preserves, jams can be made, while their medicinal properties are preserved.
Useful properties of chokeberry and their application
In addition to the fact that the chokeberry has an exquisite and unusual taste, it also has medicinal properties. It contains a large amount of vitamins, minerals and other useful substances.
The use of fresh chokeberry, in the form of juice, compote and other homemade preparations, is useful for diabetes mellitus, with an excess of cholesterol, hypertension. The chokeberry has a therapeutic effect in anemia, low immunity, some vascular diseases, accompanied by increased permeability and fragility of blood vessels.
With the undoubted benefits of chokeberry, it is not recommended to use it in its pure form and products from it for hypotonic patients and people suffering from stomach and (or) duodenal ulcers, as well as gastritis with high acidity.
This plant is unpretentious, withstands well in winter, resistant to various pests and grows well on any soil, so they like to plant it in gardens. Aronia is harvested in the fall, keeping until frost, then it is especially tasty.
It is good to harvest dried or dried chokeberry fruits for the winter. You can dry them simply by sprinkling them in a layer, or in the oven at a temperature not exceeding 60 ° C.
If the fruits have dried properly, their color will turn cherry red. If the berries have acquired a brown or red-brown color, this means that vitamin P has decomposed and the fruits will not have a medicinal effect.
You can make juice from chokeberry with or without pulp by boiling it at a temperature of 60 ° C for about 20 minutes until the berries soften. Then the berries need to be crushed, and if the pulp is not needed, squeeze the thick through cheesecloth. When boiled, add 100 g of water to 1 kg of berries. For sweet juice, first, the berries are covered with sugar at the rate of 1.5 kg of sugar per 1 kg of fruit, and then they do the same. Naturally, before any procedure, the berries are cleaned of twigs, sorted and washed. It is necessary to adhere to the specified temperature in order to preserve the vitamins and medicinal properties of the plant.
Chokeberry jam
Chokeberry jam turns out to be incredibly tasty, and almost all vitamins are also preserved. There are many different favorite ways to make jam. Since the taste of the fruit is tart, it is often boiled with plums, apples, there is a recipe where apple juice is used for syrup instead of water. As a rule, all berries are boiled for a short time so that they do not wrinkle, retain their taste and useful properties.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of black chokeberry berries;
- 1, 3 kg of sugar;
- 1 glass of water.
Sort out and wash the berries, then blanch for 7 minutes in the amount of water required for the syrup. Remove the berries from the water into another bowl, prepare the syrup in this water. As soon as the syrup boils, put the berries in it and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes after boiling.
Let cool, leave for a few hours. Then let it boil for another 15 minutes. The jam is ready. Now it remains to decompose it hot in well-sterilized jars and twist.
