Description, properties and collection of autumn berries
Autumn berries may not be as tasty as summer berries (strawberries, raspberries, currants), but in the concentration of useful properties they will not give in to anyone.Gifts of autumn can be collected not only in the gardens, beautiful ripe berries admire a palette of colors in forest glades: yellow cloudberries, blue blueberries, red lingonberries, black blackberries. Autumn fruits and berries are the last accent point in the piggy bank of immunity, they complete the seasonal accumulation of vitamins in our body, prepare it for winter.
Varieties
Autumn berries grow in gardens, meadows and forests. Often the same plants can be found both in the wild and domesticated, growing in suburban areas. Gardeners are happy to cultivate sea buckthorn, dogwood, barberry, dog rose, and viburnum. Breeding plants are pleased with large beautiful berries. Wild dogwood, barberry, sea buckthorn are inferior in size to garden plants, but surpass them in the concentration of minerals, vitamins and essential oils.
Some berries prefer to grow in the swamps: cranberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, blueberries, they are difficult to grow in the garden. And berry bushes perfectly take root in suburban areas: elder, viburnum, sea buckthorn, aronia, dogwood, barberry, dog rose, hawthorn.
In order to competently use the fruits of autumn, one should take an interest not only in their names, but also in food, medical values, inquire about the time of collection, harvesting, application. This will be discussed in this article.
Aronia
This plant is also called chokeberry, based on it produce many pharmaceutical preparations.
Benefit and harm
It is difficult to overestimate the benefit of chokeberry for our body: it regulates blood pressure, strengthens the vascular system, slows down the aging of the eyes, it is used for iodine deficiency and reduced immunity.
The dark color of the berries indicates a large number of anthocyanins, that is, those same antioxidants that neutralize oxygen free radicals, which lead to aging of a person.
Tart taste gives the presence of tannins that affect carcinogens and reduce the risk of cancer.
Like any plant, Aronia has its own contraindications. It increases the acidity of gastric juice, so it can not be used for gastric ulcer, it is contraindicated if the acidity of gastric juice is greatly increased.
Application
Four Art. spoons of dried berries are steamed in a 0.5 liter boiling water thermos. Infusion take on an empty stomach, as a vitamin, a diuretic.
Terms and rules of collection
The value of chokeberry as a food and medicine can only consist in fully ripened berries. Its fruits on the bushes can remain until frost.
Chokeberry is collected together with stalks, tied up in small bunches and hung on the veranda.
Stocking
From chokeberry you can make healthy jam, which in winter will saturate the body with vitamins. To do this, boil the syrup: dissolve 1 kg of sugar in a glass of water and boil over low heat for about a minute. Pour the prepared berries with syrup and leave overnight. In the morning bring the jam to a boil and boil for about five minutes. After complete cooling, re-weld a little. The third time, the jam should be boiled until the berries settle to the bottom, that is, until cooked.
Rosehip
The wild plant, which the people call with love the wild rose, belongs to the Rosaceae family.
Benefit and harm
There is no plant in nature that would contain vitamin C in such an amount. In folk medicine, with weakened conditions, protracted diseases, it is always recommended to use dogrose infusion. Fruits contain vitamins A, K, P, E, B1 and B2, as well as a whole complex of trace elements. Magnesium strengthens bones and the muscular system, potassium improves the nervous and cardiovascular systems.
Rosehip has choleretic, diuretic properties, reduces inflammation and cholesterol levels, is useful in atherosclerosis, viral diseases.
Application
To save vitamin C, do not make decoctions of rose hips, it is better to insist in a thermos with a glass flask or to warm the pan with the infusion of fruit, wrapped it with a blanket. Dry berries, grind before cooking or you can brew them whole and crush after swelling.
Terms and rules of collection
Rosehip is harvested in the fall during full ripening. The plant has many species and their ripening period varies, the collection time depends on the climatic conditions of the region. To pick a rose hip, it is better to choose a day in September or October, clear, do not rain until frost, so as to preserve the presence of vitamin C in full.
Stocking
Fruits, for use in winter, can be dried in the oven at a temperature of from forty to sixty degrees. But it is better to lay them in a thin layer in a warm ventilated place and dry them in a natural way.
Sea buckthorn
Some plants grow up to 10 m, the berries are the color of the sun, literally stick around the branches. Small in appearance fruits are of great value for our health.
Benefit and harm
Bright small berries contain almost all the vitamins known to science. Vitamin C in sea buckthorn is three times more than in orange. Fruits are rich in pectin, carotene, fatty and organic acids. Due to the presence of B-sitosterol, the berries have anti-sclerotic effect. Sea buckthorn is useful for weakened organisms, it increases hemoglobin, strengthens the immune system, restores strength. Fruits improve eyesight, reduce cholesterol levels, slow down the aging process.
The oil of this shrub has unique properties, it is used for tissue regeneration (wound healing), treatment of burns and ulcers.
Taking sea buckthorn oil is contraindicated for people suffering from gallstone and urolithiasis, diseases of the liver and pancreas.
Application
Two parts of ground sea buckthorn fruits should be mixed with one part of honey and take 1 teaspoon of berries several times a day. Well helps with colds and debilitated conditions.
The oil of this shrub well treats peptic ulcer. For treatment, every morning, half an hour before meals, take 1 teaspoonful of the drug.
To treat gastritis with high acidity, should be three teaspoons of sea buckthorn oil diluted in a glass of warmed milk and drink in the morning on an empty stomach.
Terms and rules of collection
Sea buckthorn ripens in late September. From this period until the frost, you can collect fruit. Harvesting is not easy, small berries are literally stuck to the prickly branches. They are cut together with the fruits, and then at home, in comfortable conditions, the berries are separated. By next harvest season, the bush will fully recover.
Stocking
To keep everything valuable in sea buckthorn, do not boil it. Berries need to grind with sugar 1: 2, insist day before sugar dissolves, roll up the banks and put in the pantry.
Sea buckthorn contains small bones, they can be eaten, they clean the intestines, but do not give to fully enjoy the tasty product, therefore, it is better to use a juicer for making jam. The remaining cake is poured boiled water, insist, filter and add sugar to taste. The drink turns out not worse than Fanta, and certainly more useful than her.
Dogwood
Cornels belong to the family of cornels. This plant, depending on the place of growth, may look like a tree (in the Caucasus) or as a shrub (Crimea). Dogwood lives from 100 to 200 years.
Benefit and harm
Cornel, like all autumn berries - just a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. Glucose accelerates metabolism, improves the elasticity of blood vessels; organic acids normalize metabolic processes; essential oils improve the digestive tract and act bactericidal; pectin binds and removes toxic substances from the body.
Cornel has a beneficial effect on the liver and cardiovascular system, it reduces the temperature in case of catarrhal diseases, removes inflammatory processes, fights microbes and bacteria.
Contraindicated with high acidity of gastric juice and nervous excitability.
Application
Long since the people treated hemorrhoids with fresh cornel fruits. They recommended daily, for five days, to eat with seeds of two glasses of berries. Cornel jam is also suitable, for treatment you will need at least two liters of it.
Terms and rules of collection
Dogwood fruits are harvested in late August - early September, slightly immature, so they can be preserved longer. They ripen perfectly during storage.
Stocking
Dogwood can be dried, freeze or make jams and compotes from it.
Barberry
Very beautiful shrub, it pleases with its colors from spring to late autumn. Its green leaves eventually turn into bright orange, and from beautiful yellow inflorescences turn out saturated red berries.
Benefit and harm
Due to the high content of berberine (alkaloid compound) has a pronounced choleretic effect, well cleanses the liver and biliary tract. It contains other valuable compounds, amino acids, pectin, carotene, tannin, essential oils.
In the barberry all is useful: fruits, leaves, bark. It is used to treat hepatitis, cystitis, prostatitis. They are treated with depression, apathy, neurosis, and tuberculosis.
Application
1 tablespoon grated berries brew a glass of boiling water for 3-5 hours. Drink in two doses for obesity.
Terms and rules of collection
The barberries are harvested in October - November, after the first frosts, wearing gloves to protect hands from thorny branches.
Stocking
Berries are dried or canned, they are prepared drinks and desserts.
Elderberry black
The bush belongs to the honeysuckle species, there are 40 species of this plant. Brush fruits small and sweet, black.
Benefit and harm
Elderberry has many healing properties, but at the same time it has slightly toxic effects, so it should be thermally treated before use.
An elderberry contains vitamins A, PP, C, and group B. It is used in diseases of the kidneys, bladder, and influenza.
In medicine, all parts of the elderberry are used, from the roots and bark to flowers, fruits and leaves. The plant is the strongest immunostimulant, it is used as an adjunct in the fight against cancer.
Application
Gout is treated with infusion of elderberry flowers (2 tbsp. Per half liter of boiling water). Infusion steamed for 3-4 hours and drink warm in several doses.
Terms and rules of collection
The berries are harvested in August - September, during ripening. They can be stored in a cool place for up to six months.
Thanks to the autumn berries, the forest and the garden look incredibly beautiful. Gifts of autumn are not only aesthetic, but also useful and tasty.
You can learn more about autumn berries in the following video.