What is the best way to store barberry: ways to prepare it for the winter at home

Considering the miraculous power of barberry, everyone who has the opportunity to stock up on it tries to preserve it for as long as possible. To do this, you should know about several methods and rules for harvesting and drying different parts of the plant.

How to prepare and store barberry fruits for drying

Please note that only fully ripened fruits are suitable for drying. Therefore, late autumn is considered the optimal time for picking berries. In addition, it is during this period that the greatest amount of useful substances accumulates in barberry. After harvesting, the barberry fruits must be washed, dried a little, placed on a baking sheet and placed in the oven.

The heating temperature of the device at the initial stage of drying should be in the range from 45 to 50 ° C, and then it should be gradually increased to 60 ° C. Readiness is determined in a simple way; to do this, you need to squeeze the berries in your fist; if they do not stick together, then the fruits can be removed.

Dried barberry can be stored for several years.The best place to save are plastic bottles or other hermetically sealed containers. You can also place the healing drying agent in fabric bags, but in this case, you will have to carefully ensure that the room where they are located is not humid.

See also: drying barberry berries.

Drying and storing barberry twigs with leaves

At the end of spring or early summer, connoisseurs of healthy drinks stock up on young branches and leaves of barberry. There is no need to wash tender shoots. Immediately after collection, they should be placed in a well-ventilated place, where the sun's rays do not reach (they can destroy some healing properties). In just 7 days, the barberry leaves and branches will be ready.

After this, they must be tightly packed in bags made of canvas fabric (it “breathes” well) and sent for safekeeping. In this condition they can be used for 2 years. During this period, dried barberry leaves and branches “will not lose” their miraculous substances.

Drying and storing barberry roots

With the onset of late autumn, the time comes to harvest barberry roots. To do this, you need to dig out one third of the total volume of roots. It is not recommended to wash them before harvesting (this can be done immediately before use); just shake off the soil from them and pinch off those areas where there are dark spots and signs of rotting.

To dry barberry roots, you need to choose a well-ventilated, dark room. Usually this is the attic. Some people dry barberry roots in the oven for 2 to 4 hours at a temperature of 45 °C to 50 °C. Properly dried raw materials in a broken place (they break very easily) should have a lemon-yellow tint.

Dry barberry roots should be stored in tied bales in a dry and well-ventilated area. Under such conditions they will be usable for 3 years.

Storing barberry not in dried form

Barberry berries can not only be dried. There are several more methods that housewives often prefer:

• freezing;
• in glass containers in ground form;
• blanks in the form jam, jelly, marshmallows, jams, compotes and more.

Everyone, having chosen the most suitable method for themselves, must remember that observing all the subtleties is an important point that will keep the barberry in a suitable condition for as long as possible.

Lyudmila Filatkina in her video talks about the beneficial properties and how you can use the berries of barberry and chokeberry (chokeberry). Perhaps these simple recipes were not previously known to you.