Drying berries and blackberry leaves, as well as blackberry marshmallows and figs

Sort through the blackberries, separating whole berries from crushed ones. Remove leaves and stalks. It is strictly forbidden to wash blackberries if you do not want to spoil the preparation. We will dry only whole and undamaged berries.

Drying blackberries

You can dry blackberries in the fresh air, or forcefully, using a gas oven or electric dryer. When drying outdoors, try to avoid direct sunlight and place trays of blackberries in the shade. Due to their size, blackberries dry quite quickly, and in favorable weather, drying will take 2-3 days.

In an electric dryer or oven, for drying, you should first set the power to high, about 70 degrees, and after two hours, reduce the temperature to 40 degrees. The average drying time for blackberries is 6-7 hours.

Dried blackberries are mainly used for making compote and tea, but you can also make a sweet dish.

Blackberry fig

Smokva is one of the varieties of marshmallow. It is prepared from those berries that you have discarded and that are not suitable for drying.

1 kg blackberries;
0.5 kg sugar;
0.5 liters of water.

Grind everything thoroughly through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds (optional), and cook, stirring continuously, until it becomes a very thick puree.

Cool the blackberry mixture and pour into the marshmallow tray. The figs need to be dried at a temperature of 40-45 degrees for 6 hours. Readiness is checked with a finger or a match. Stick a match into the blackberry cake and look, the match should not be wet.

You can experiment a little and add nuts to the still liquid figs.

Figs cut into thin strips can be used as a decoration for ice cream or cake.

Now let’s watch a video on how to make blackberry marshmallow:

Dried blackberry leaves

Fox blackberries are harvested to make tea. It is better to collect them in early spring, when the leaves have just blossomed, or during flowering.

It is advisable to ferment the leaves, this will allow you to extract all the vitamins from the leaves.

Place the leaves on the table in several layers and roll them with a wooden rolling pin until they are all pressed together.

Place the leaves in a saucepan and wait 2 days for the fermentation process to take place. The leaves will become very limp, black in places, and this is normal, now they can be dried.

Place the blackberry leaves on trays and expose them to fresh air under a shelter until completely dry.

Blackberry leaves should be stored in linen bags or in a cardboard box for no more than 12 months.