Chokeberry: when to collect tart berries?

Aronia is a spectacular shrub with black fruits and glossy leaves. This native from North America settled down on our land and was named here chokeberry ashberry. When to collect overseas berries, what care is for her and what is the nutritional value of aronia, in Russia they learned thanks to Michurin's efforts. Prior to his research, the shrub was grown for decorative purposes, and it was not widely distributed. Now the aronia grows in many parts of the country and is valued not only for its decorative and tart taste of fruits, but also for medicinal qualities.

High yield, rapidity and lack of cyclicity in fruit bearing are valuable qualities that distinguish chokeberry. When to collect astringent astringent berries and what is useful in them?

Composition of fruits chokeberry

Beautiful shiny fruits with astringent sweet taste contain carotene, vitamins E, C, P and PP, group B, as well as iron, boron, manganese, iodide compounds, molybdenum and copper. In addition, they contain pectins, tannins, folic acid. The fruits of chokeberry in the content of vitamin P surpass all other berries and vegetable crops. The amount of this useful component is 5 times higher than in the black currant, and 10 times more than in cabbage. Using only 1 gram of fresh berries, a person will fully satisfy the daily requirement for vitamin R.

Pectins, which in large quantities contain the fruits of chokeberry, are able to remove from the body slag and salts of heavy metals. They contribute to the outflow of bile and stabilize the work of the intestine. Also high is the content of anthocyanins - plant pigments that can give a steady color to light juices. A successful combination of ascorbic acid with vitamin P makes berries an excellent preventive and curative remedy for sleep disorders, cardiovascular diseases, headaches and decreased immunity. By accumulation of iodine in fruits (2-4 times more than other crops), the leader is also chokeberry. When to collect a tart berry to get the most vitamins?

Flowering and fruiting

The long-standing deciduous shrub bush can actively bear fruit for more than 20 years, bringing annually up to 10 kg of useful tasty berries. Flowering begins late, in mid-June, which completely eliminates the freezing of the ovaries. Fruits start to ripen quickly, by the end of August they are usable. But at this time picking berries usually do not produce. This is due to the high content of catechins, giving the fruits excessive tartness. Their content decreases with time, which contributes to the improvement of taste.

When to collect chokeberry

Ripe berries of aronia are well kept on the branches and can stay there for 1-2 months if birds do not. Usually they start harvesting in September-October. Scutes are cut with scissors, then the berries are separated from the pedicels and poured into shallow boxes.

Aronia is transportable and well stored at a temperature of +5 ° C. If cut off flaps, without removing berries, hang in a dark cold place, fresh chokeberry will be available all winter at hand.

When to collect berries for drying? In order to improve the taste of fruits and they gain all the healing power, the collection should be carried out after the first frosts. Dried berries retain their medicinal properties, if in the process ensure good ventilation and do not raise the temperature above +50 ^о С.

Also, the berries are frozen, syrups and compotes are cooked from it. When making wines from chokeberry, curative substances are destroyed under the influence of the fermentation process.