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Bird cherry can often be found on forest edges and along river banks. Where there are no good gardens, its sweet berries replace cherries. Children enjoy them, housewives prepare delicious pastries. Bird cherry, twisted with sugar, is added to apple compotes, as a filling in pies, liqueurs, wine, and sweet vitamin jams are made from it.
What is useful bird cherry, grated with sugar
This black berry was used as food by ancient people. During excavations of the Stone Man site, fruit pits were found. Probably, even then people appreciated the nutritional and healing properties of bird cherry. Interestingly, scientists consider this berry a distant relative of the plum, but for some reason hybrids are bred together with cherries (cherries).
For a very long time, people consumed wild herbs and berries. Thanks to this, they had good health, endurance, and a lot of strength. Now the need for wild-growing vitamins can be covered by wild berries. Bird cherry with sugar will help to form strong immunity for children, and replenish the body of adults with valuable nutrients:
- amygdalin, which is present in the bird cherry stone, as well as in the almond, gives the berries a flavor, in small doses it is useful not only for humans, but also for animals;
- tannins, have astringent properties, are effective in enteritis, infectious colitis, dyspepsia of various etymologies, dysentery, disorders of the intestines, stomach, diseases of the oral cavity;
- essential oils;
- pectins;
- coloring elements;
- organic acids, such as citric, malic;
- glycosides;
- fixed oils;
- ascorbic acid;
- volatile, exhibit antimicrobial activity, they have only fresh berries;
- Sahara;
- flavonoids.
Bird cherry fruits exhibit strong astringent properties, as well as blocking the inflammatory process. They have a hemostatic effect, strengthen the capillary network and are an excellent remedy for various pathologies of the vessel walls. Bird cherry berries contain a lot of vitamins, they help to avoid hypovitaminosis in the cold season, to get sick less with colds and other seasonal diseases. Fragrant tea is brewed from mashed bird cherry, and compotes are made in combination with other berries.
Recipe for mashed bird cherry with sugar
Bird cherry fruits have a sweetish and slightly astringent taste. In the middle there is one rather large bone. These berries are edible, they are healing and quite tasty, a variety of dishes are prepared from them. Collected in the period of full ripening, this is usually July.
Bird cherry fruits are harvested for the winter in the form of jelly, jam. This can be done very simply. Boil the fruits, cleaned of debris, stalks and dust in a small volume of water (1 cup). Wipe with a metal sieve, mix with sugar (1 kg per 500 g), add a tablespoon of gelatin. Sterilize in half-liter jars for 20 minutes.
Recipe for cooking in a slow cooker
The following ingredients will be needed:
- bird cherry virgin – 1 kg;
- black gooseberry – 0,15 kg;
- blackberry – 0,2 kg;
- red currant (juice) – 0,2 l;
- ginger – 0,05 kg;
- sugar – 1 kg.
Turn the multicooker on the mode of frying vegetables. Prepare sugar syrup by adding juice to it. Separately, boil the bird cherry in a cup of water, wipe, separating from the seeds. Add the resulting paste and the rest of the berries to the syrup. Bring to a boil, remove the foam and pour in the ginger chips. Close the lid tightly, after 5 minutes the multicooker can be turned off, but the jam should languish for another 1 hour. Then pour into jars, screw on the lids.
Twisted bird cherry with sugar for the winter
Previously, wild bird cherry berries were harvested in this way in the villages for the whole year. Clean the fruits from impurities, wash, remove excess moisture. Twist in a meat grinder several times. Add the same amount of sugar, arrange in jars, close with airtight polyethylene lids. If the mass will be frozen, it should be packaged in plastic containers (containers, cups).
Terms of storage
You can store bird cherry blanks until spring. The most suitable place for this is a dark, cold cellar or basement. The bottom shelf of the refrigerator is even better suited for this purpose. In the freezer, the twisted berry mass can retain its properties for a whole year, until the new harvest.
Conclusion
Bird cherry, twisted with sugar, can successfully replace jam from our usual cherries, currants, and other berries. It is in no way inferior to them in terms of its nutritional and taste properties. A gentle treatment without thermal effects allows you to save them to the fullest.