When to collect red elderberry: timing and technique, rules for storing berries

Red elderberry is popular among the people due to its beneficial properties. The flowers of this plant are actively used in folk medicine - for the preparation of tinctures for colds, flu, tonsillitis, diabetes, hormonal imbalance, burns and skin diseases. It is important to understand when to harvest red elderberry, as the preservation of its properties depends on the correct collection.

Date of picking elderberry flowers

Elderberry is harvested during the full flowering period. The best time is considered the moment when not all the flowers have yet opened. Fully opened inflorescences have the greatest number of useful properties that are valued in traditional medicine.Flowers should be collected in warm and dry weather.

When are the berries harvested?

Unlike black elderberry, red elderberry fruits have an unpleasant taste. Unripe fruits are toxic and should not be eaten.

Elderberries are harvested after full ripeness - at the end of August or in September.

It is important not to miss the moment when the berries are fully ripe. Ripe fruits have elasticity and density. If you are late with the collection, the berries will become shriveled, semi-dry and unusable, as they will lose most of their useful properties. Red elderberries should be picked and dried in bunches.

Collection of bark

In addition to flowers and berries, elderberry bark also has beneficial properties. It is harvested in April, from two-year-old branches, during the ripening of the buds. Cut off only the upper dark layer of the bark. After harvesting, the bark should be dried in a ventilated place.

Required tools

To harvest, you will need sharp scissors or pruners, as elderberries are harvested in clusters. The blades must be sharpened so as not to harm the plant. It is better to harvest in a basket or tray so that the collection can be distributed evenly. To store the dried crop, you will need sealed glass vessels that do not allow moisture to pass through.

Collection technique

Elderberry flowers should be collected during the blooming period, separating them from the peduncles. After harvesting, the flowers should be dried and passed through a sieve. Flowers should be stored at a humidity of no more than 14 percent.

Ripe fruits are harvested in clusters. After harvesting, the bunches must be spread out in a thin layer and dried in the air. After that, the fruits are dried in a dryer or oven. Dried fruits must be separated from the twigs.

The bark is harvested from branches that are two years old. It is cleaned, the top layer is scraped off, separated and dried in a dryer or oven. The roots of the plant are harvested in late autumn. They are dried in the same way and ground to a powder consistency.

Storage rules

Collected flowers can be stored for 24 months at air temperature from +5 to +25 degrees Celsius and air humidity not more than 65%. Dried fruits can be stored for no more than six months. The bark of the plant can be stored for three years, and the roots of elderberry can be stored for five years.

Application

Red elderberry, unlike black, is not used in official medicine, but is widely used in folk medicine. Also, despite the fact that the plant's berries taste worse than black elderberries, and unripe fruits are considered poisonous at all and eating them can cause poisoning, the berries can nevertheless be used for culinary purposes after heat treatment.

In folk medicine

Flowers and berries of red elderberry are the main component in the preparation of many medicinal tinctures that help with bronchitis, rheumatism. A decoction of the roots of the plant is used as a laxative and diuretic.

With a stomach ulcer three times a day before meals, drink one hundred milliliters of elderberry infusion and seize with vegetable oil. The infusion is taken for a month and the course is repeated two weeks later if necessary.

For the treatment of bronchial asthma, an infusion from the bark of a plant helps.

One tablespoon of crushed roots per 300 milliliters of boiling water is infused for two hours and is eaten three times a day, half a glass.

In the treatment of rheumatism, headaches and colds, a tincture of elder flowers is used. Two teaspoons of crushed flowers are poured with boiling water in the amount of 250 milliliters and infused for 10 minutes. 100 milliliters of infusion is drunk twice a day.

Cooking

Red elderberries make delicious and he althy juice that can be prepared for the winter. To prepare it, the berries must be scalded, rubbed through a sieve and the resulting juice brought to a boil. You can eat no more than 50 grams of juice per day.

Juice is immune-boosting and helps restore natural metabolism.

Fresh ripe fruits of the plant are used to make jams, jams and purees. Puree is made from berries and sugar, in a ratio of two to one. The berries are rubbed together with sugar and put on fire. After that, the resulting mixture should be brought to a boil, put into jars and pasteurized.

Jam is made from berries and sugar in a ratio of one to one, with the addition of a small amount of pure water. The berries are crushed and boiled with sugar and water until thickened.

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