COLLECTION AND DRYING OF RAW MATERIALS
Medicinal raw materials are marsh cranberries. They are harvested from the beginning of maturation to snowfall, also in early spring, after the snow has melted. Cranberries are harvested by hand, scallop-type scoops or scrapers. Green and even red-sided, but berries that have not reached normal size, cannot be collected. Picking cranberries should begin when the berries are completely red and acquire a sour taste. Red-sided berries are not a sign of the beginning of their ripening. Picking unripe berries reduces the quality of raw materials, their weight and storage period; the yield is reduced by 30-40%. Ripening berries after harvest lose their bactericidal properties and are poorly preserved. The berries cleaned after harvesting are stored in various containers at a temperature preferably not higher than 10 ° C.
PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
The plant has a vitamin, antipyretic, thirst-quenching, bactericidal effect, improves the functioning of the stomach and intestines, stimulates the activity of the digestive glands. Cranberry pectic substances are distinguished by high gelling ability, easily form insoluble compounds (chelates) with heavy and radioactive metals (lead, strontium, cobalt, etc.), contributing to their detoxification and excretion from the body.
APPLICATIONS IN MEDICINE
Aboveground part. Tea and decoction – for headaches. In Lithuania, in combination with warming up – with the deposition of salts and for gargling; in the form of baths – with rheumatism. Leaves. Antiscorbutic, for colds, heartburn, low acidity, shortness of breath. Leaves, fruits. Infusion (inside) – for hypertension, atherosclerosis, gastritis, colitis, metabolic disorders. Fruits. Extract – antiscorbutic. Ointment – anti-inflammatory and antiseptic for skin diseases. Juice – bactericidal for staphylococci, streptococci, Escherichia coli, Proteus, in the treatment of purulent wounds and burns; in the USA – to prevent the formation of kidney stones and in infectious diseases of the urinary tract. In folk medicine, fresh berries and juice – for hypertension, ascites; as an anti-inflammatory – in kidney diseases; with hypoaciditis, diseases of the stomach and liver, pancreas, Addison’s disease; antipyretic in fever; in diabetes, rheumatism, malaria, also as a hemostatic and antiscorbutic agent. In Lithuania – for anemia and pulmonary tuberculosis, atherosclerosis, headache; as diaphoretic and diuretic; in the form of gruel externally – with bedsores; in the form of compresses – for skin diseases. Fresh berries with honey and juice – for colds.
DOSAGE FORMS, METHOD OF APPLICATION AND DOSES
♦ Infusion of fruits and leaves of cranberries: 10 g of berries and leaves are poured into 200 ml of boiling water, insisted for 4 hours in a thermos, then filtered. Take 1/2 cup 3 times every day. ♦ Cranberry juice with honey: squeezed from the fruit in September – October and later (before snow falls). Take 1/4-1/2 cup. ♦ Cranberry ointment: 2 tablespoons of ripe fruits are rubbed and squeezed through gauze. The resulting juice is mixed with lanolin and vaseline, taken 50 g each. Stored in the refrigerator. CONTRAINDICATIONS AND POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: it is unacceptable to use cranberries for people suffering from gastritis with high acidity, peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, liver diseases.
APPLICATIONS IN OTHER FIELDS
Fruit pomace (pulp) is a surrogate for tea. Red food coloring. Fresh berries – for making jam, fruit drink, jelly, mashed with sugar and soaked, also for candy fillings, for sauerkraut “Provencal”, for making juices, syrups, liquors, liqueurs, wines. The leaves can be used as a substitute for tea, especially on long hikes. Serves as food for geese, partridges, black grouse, bears, martens. Productivity in Belarus is up to 0.5 t/ha. There is evidence that in favorable years with sufficient rainfall, up to 3 tons of berries can be harvested from 1 hectare of swamp. Cultivated. There are up to 200 cultivars of cranberries in the USA.
TASTY TIPS
Salad of apples, cranberries and grapes.
Apples (250 g) cut into cubes. Blanch cranberries (50 g), mix with prepared apples, mayonnaise (80 g), lemon juice and honey. Put a slide on green lettuce leaves and garnish with grapes (200 g).
Radish salad with cranberry juice.
Chop radish (100 g), add cranberry juice (2 tablespoons), sunflower oil (1 tablespoon), salt and mix. Leave for 30 minutes and serve.
Cranberry soup.
Mash cranberries (100 g), pour water (500 ml), cover and leave for 15 minutes. Then strain, add sugar to the broth (to taste), slices of peeled apples (150 g), bring to a boil and cool. Before serving, top with cream (150 ml) or sour cream (30 g).
Roasted turkey with cranberry jam.
Salt the prepared turkey carcass inside and out 2 hours before frying. Cut the skin around the knee joints and stretch the tendons so that the legs do not turn out to be stiff. Press firmly on the sternum so that the brisket flattens and becomes wider. Grease the turkey with softened butter, put on a baking sheet with boiling fat, pour in a glass of water and place in a heated oven. Fry for 2-3 hours, covered, basting frequently with juice and, if necessary, adding water. Before cooking, remove the lid and brown the turkey over low heat. Before serving, cut into pieces, put on a dish skin side up in such a way that you get a whole turkey. Warm up the dish and serve with fried potatoes and cranberry jam.
Semolina porridge with cranberry juice.
Rinse cranberries (2 cups), mash and squeeze the juice. Pour pomace with water, boil, strain. Add sugar (1 cup) to the broth and bring to a boil. Dilute semolina (1 cup) with cranberry juice, pour into boiling syrup – you get a thick porridge. Put hot porridge on a baking sheet, cool, cut into pieces and serve with cream (2 cups).
Cranberries soaked.
Pour cranberries (1 kg) into prepared dishes, pour chilled water, add Antonovka apples (200 g), sugar (50 g), salt, pepper, cloves, bay leaf, keep in the room for 7 days until fermentation is over. Then cover and store in the cold. Use as a side dish for meat, fish dishes, for vinaigrettes, salads.
Cranberry natural.
1. Arrange the berries in glass jars, fill with water and close with plastic lids. Store in a cold place. Use as needed.2. Arrange the berries in sterilized jars, pour boiling water, cover with lids and pasteurize: half-liter – 10 minutes, liter – 15 minutes. Cork. Use berries to make jelly, jam, etc.
Cranberries with sugar.
1. Berries (1 kg) blanch for 3-4 minutes, then wipe through a sieve or colander. Mix puree with sugar (1 kg), heat to 90°C, place in hot sterilized jars, cover with lids and pasteurize at 90°C: half-liter – 20 minutes, liter – 25-30 minutes. Seal.2. Berries (1 kg) rub through a sieve or pass through a meat grinder with sugar (1 kg). Pour the mass into jars, cover with plastic lids. Store in a cool place.
Cranberry juice.
Squeeze juice (1 l) from berries, add sugar (500 g), pour into jars and pasteurize at a temperature of 80 ° C: half-liter – 5-10 minutes, liter – 15-20 minutes.
Cranberries in own juice.
Berries (700 g) are mixed with juice (300 ml), heated to a temperature of 95 ° C, put into sterilized jars and pasteurized: half-liter – 15 minutes, liter – 20 minutes.
Morse cranberry.
Put the juice from the berries in the cold. Pour the pulp with boiling water, heat to a boil, strain, cool slightly, pour in the juice, add honey, sugar, xylitol to taste.
Cranberry compote.
Arrange berries (1 kg) in sterilized jars, pour hot 50% sugar syrup (500 g of sugar per 500 ml of water) and pasteurize at a temperature of 90 ° C: half-liter jars – 10 minutes, liter – 20 minutes.
Cranberry pasta.
Pour berries (1 kg) with water (250 ml), cook over low heat until softened, mix thoroughly with sugar (1 kg) and boil until the consistency of marshmallow.
Cranberry mousse.
Berries (200 g) mash, pour boiled water (300 ml), squeeze the juice. Pour the pulp with water (300 ml), boil for 5 minutes, then strain. Slowly pour semolina (50 g) into the broth and, stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Pour in the chilled juice, beat until the mass doubles in size. Put in the cold.
Cranberry jelly with kefir.
Squeeze juice from berries (100 g). Pour the pulp with water (300 ml), bring to a boil, strain. Add sugar (50 g) to the broth, pour gelatin (5 g) diluted in cold water, bring to a boil, cool slightly. Pour kefir (200 ml) and juice, mix and pour into cups.
Cranberry jam.
Berries (500 g) blanch for 3-4 minutes, put in a colander. When the water drains, throw the berries into an enamel bowl and pour hot sugar syrup (1.5 kg of sugar per 1 liter of water) over them for 8-10 hours, then cook until tender.
Cranberry jam with walnuts.
Boil nut kernels (200 g) for 30 minutes, then pour sugar syrup (700 g of sugar per 500 ml of water), add cranberries (1 kg) and cook over low heat until tender.
Cranberry jam with apples.
Blanched berries pour half the norm of sugar syrup for 10 hours, then add the remaining syrup and cook over low heat. 15 minutes before readiness, put peeled blanched apple slices (500 g). At the end of cooking, you can add vanillin, cinnamon, citric acid.
Cranberry jam with cranberries.
Blanch cranberries (500 g) for 2-3 minutes, add lingonberries (500 g), pour hot sugar syrup (1.5 kg of sugar per 500 ml of water) and cook until tender. The jam will be tastier if the cranberries, after blanching, are kept in sugar syrup for 10-12 hours, and then boiled with lingonberries until tender.
Radish with cranberry juice.
Grate radish (100 g), add cranberry juice (50 ml), vegetable oil (15 g), salt (to taste). After half an hour, serve.
Cranberry-potato drink.
Cool cranberry juice (1 l), add freshly squeezed potato juice (100 ml) and sugar (400 g).
Cranberry blast.
Squeeze juice from berries (2 1/2 cups). Pour the pulp with boiling water (200 ml), boil, squeeze again and cool. Dissolve rye flour in cranberry broth (1 tablespoon). Boil the juice with honey (75-100 g) until it thickens slightly, pour in the broth with flour, boil and cool.
Cranberry drink with honey.
Berries (1 cup) sort, wash and mash in an enamel bowl with a wooden pestle. Squeeze out the juice. Add water (200 ml) to the remaining pulp and bring to a boil. Without cooling, strain and add the hot infusion to the previously squeezed juice. Mix with honey (4 tablespoons), cool, serve in glasses.
Drink “Northern”.
Prepare juice from carrots (1 kg) and cranberries (1.5 kg), mix them, dilute with water (500 ml), add sugar (to taste).
Peacock drink.
Combine fresh apple juice (500 g of apples) with sugar (100 g), boil and strain through a sieve or cheesecloth. Let stand and carefully, without shaking the sediment, pour into another bowl. Also prepare cranberry juice (200 g cranberries). Mix juices, add cold water (200 ml), vanillin, cool. Serve in a pitcher with an ice cube.
Drink “North”.
Grind the egg with sugar (3 tablespoons), add cold boiled milk (400 ml) and cranberry juice (400 ml), mix thoroughly and refrigerate. Place ice cubes in glasses before serving.