Strawberries are rich in useful substances and vitamins, they are used in cooking, home medicine.
To even delight themselves and loved ones with delicious berries, even in winter, many dry them. In order to maximally preserve all the useful properties and durability of strawberries, you need to be able to properly dry it.
Preparatory work before drying strawberries at home
The preparatory phase is the most important start of work. After all, the fate of the berries will depend on it. Before drying strawberries, you should carefully approach the collection of berries. When the crop is harvested, it is followed by a careful selection of the best berries. Unripe, green, overripe and rotten berries should be excluded so that the whole harvest does not deteriorate because of them. Berries with traces of bumps and other injuries are also not suitable. The selected fruits should be washed thoroughly under running water and remove ponytails or leaflets.
How to dry strawberries in the fresh air
It is known that dried berries retain more beneficial components than those processed for jam or jam.
There are several ways to dry strawberries: using an oven, fresh air and accessories. How to dry strawberries at home is up to you, but first familiarize yourself with each of the methods.
Fresh strawberry drying - This is a time-consuming process that requires a significant investment of time. In general - not the easiest and most convenient, but natural way. Selected and peeled fruits must be laid out in a loose layer on a clean surface, such as cloth or paper. The place where they will be located should be well ventilated. The sun should fall there, but in such a way that its rays are not directed directly at the berries.
When the place is chosen, you can safely leave the strawberries to dry all day until dark. At dusk, the berries are brought into the room. In the morning of the next day, the berries will need to be taken out again and to choose a convenient place for them. So the strawberries will dry for about 2-3 weeks. You can determine the degree of readiness of berries by their appearance. Properly dried strawberries have a burgundy saturated color, shiny grains, it is easily separated from each other.
It is best to store dried berries in cloth bags. Natural fabric should be chosen so that the berry breathes. The bags themselves are placed in a dark, dry place. The shelf life of dried strawberries is 2 years. They can be consumed later, if they were properly stored, but the taste and useful properties of the fruit will begin to fade. Therefore, it is better not to delay and apply strawberries at the indicated shelf life.
How to dry strawberries at home: choosing a convenient method
It is much easier and faster to dry strawberries, with improvised means. How to dry wild strawberries at home:
1. Using the oven - This is one of the most common methods of drying berries. To do this, preheat the oven to 35 ° C. While the oven is heating, the berries are neatly laid out on a baking sheet in an even layer. Then the pan must be placed in the oven and left there for about 1 hour. During this time, the berries will begin to fade. When the time runs out, without removing the berries from the oven, the temperature will need to be increased to 60 ° C and continue to dry them for several more hours (2-2.5). With any drying method, the finished berries look the same. As soon as your color becomes saturated and dark, and the berries themselves cease to stick together, then the drying can be considered complete.
2. Using an air grill - An easy way to shift responsibility to the device. For drying, a special mode is set in which airflow is present, and the temperature reaches 45-60 ° C. Having placed the berry crop in such a device, you can not worry about their fate and calmly go about their business. Due to the active air circulation in the aerogrill, the drying time of the berries is reduced several times in comparison with the oven. The only feature that should be considered when using an air grill is that the outflow of moisture is not taken into account in the machine. Be sure to provide it in any way possible, leaving the lid slightly open. Air grill minutes - a small surface area. A large supply of berries will have to be dried in several passes. In total, from 0.8 to 1.2 kg of strawberries will fit in the unit, depending on its characteristics, and 0.3-0.5 kg will be obtained at the output of dried berries. Well, the pluses include speed and lack of heat from the drying process.
3. How to dry strawberries in an electric dryer. Today you can pick up all kinds of dryers from a huge assortment. They may differ in cost, characteristics, principle of operation. Therefore, the drying time of strawberries can vary between 6-12 hours. But each model is individual, so it is better to familiarize yourself with the instructions of a particular unit in advance. The berries must be laid out on clean pallets so that they do not touch each other. The temperature in the dryer should be set at 50-55 ° C. For berries in an electric dryer will have to look, checking their readiness. By the berries it will become noticeable that they are ready. Then it will be possible to transfer them into bags or glass containers and store in the right place. Glass containers will better protect drying from pests.
In the forest for berries: how to dry strawberries for tea
To drink fragrant and healthy strawberry tea in winter, which saves you from many troubles, you need to take care of the harvesting of berries in a timely manner.
They should go to collect them in the summer, at the end of JuneYou can all of July, depending on climatic conditions. There are many varieties of berries, so you can find growing both in the field and in the forest. Collect fruits should be in dry weather, it is desirable that it is warm. Early in the morning, you should not go looking, since the dew will not have time to get off.
When drying strawberries take care of a good blown place. Check berries periodically for mold. Once they darken and become crumbly, you can collect them in a container.
When the time comes to tea, add 1-2 tablespoons of dried berries to black or green tea to give a refined taste, aroma, as well as enhance immunity. You can diversify your drink with decoctions of strawberries, as well as plant leaves.
Useful leaves: how to dry strawberries for tea
Not only fruits, but also strawberry leaves are rich in beneficial properties. Aromatic and healing tea is obtained from them, provided that they are correctly prepared.
1. The collected strawberry leaves should be laid out in the shade and dried.
2. Each leaf rolls into a tube between the palms so that juice begins to stand out.
3. Finished tubes should be placed on a baking sheet with a layer of 5 cm, covered with a natural cloth slightly moist and left in a room with a temperature of about 27 ° C for 6-8 hours. In this position, fermentation should begin.
4. When a bright berry aroma appears, it means that the chemical reaction has completed. The leaves will need to be dried in the oven at a temperature of 90 ° C for an hour.
5. Finished leaves are dried like berries in a cool, dry place.
