Field strawberries in different regions of Russia are called differently: midnight strawberries, hilly strawberries, meadow or steppe strawberries. Apparently, this is why there is some confusion in completely different plants.
Description of the plant
Field strawberries can grow up to 20 cm tall, have thick brown rhizomes and thin stems. The leaves are trifoliate, oval, serrated, silky to the touch, the lower part of the leaves has dense pubescence. It blooms with white flowers in late May - early June.
The berries are spherical, hence the name strawberry, in Old Slavic "club" means a ball. The color of the berries is from light green with whitish blotches at the stage of technical ripeness, to rich cherry at full ripeness. Berries can be greenish on one side and pink on the other. But even in this form, it is very sweet and tasty, and suitable for picking. The fruits are very aromatic. Those who have tasted field strawberries once remember their taste and aroma for the rest of their lives, which cannot be confused with other berries.
The peculiarity of field strawberries is that the sepals are very tightly attached to the berry. In the process of collecting, they come off with them. In July - August, the fruits of the field strawberries begin to ripen. You can find wild strawberries in meadows, hills or small hills in central Russia, steppe and forest-steppe regions. It even happens that berries are not visible among the thick grass, but they are given out by a rich berry aroma. The berries are quite dense, so they do not wrinkle, they can be transported over long distances. But, of course, the most delicious jam is made from freshly picked strawberries, because during storage the peculiar aroma disappears.
Recipes
Do you need to cleanse the sepals from the berries? Everyone decides for himself based on his taste preferences. For someone, the presence of leaves in the jam does not interfere at all, someone prefers jam only from berries. The process of removing sepals is time consuming, one mistress cannot master, so look for helpers, in the company it is more fun and faster to do everything.
To make the jam, you will need: berries - 1 kg, granulated sugar - 1 kg.
- The berries are cleared of sepals. Now you need to wash them under running water and let them dry. There is no single point of view about washing.
- Put the berries in a container, cover with sand. Refrigerate. Better to do this at night.
- In the morning they will give juice. Pour the juice into a container in which you will cook the jam. Place on the stove. Stir until the sugar dissolves. If the berries have given little juice, then add a little water to get syrup.
- Dip strawberries in boiled syrup, wait for a boil and cook for about 5 minutes, removing the foam. To remove the foam or not? Again, everyone decides the issue based on their experience and preferences. After 5 minutes, turn off the stove and let the future jam cool completely. It may take several hours, but at least 4.
- Then we repeat the process. We heat the jam and boil for 5 minutes, let it cool, so three times.
- Put the finished product in clean, sterilized jars, close the lids. The jam is kept at room temperature.
This method of cooking, although long, but at the same time achieved the necessary density of the jam. The berries remain intact, are saturated with syrup
A slightly different recipe for making wild strawberry jam.
You will need 1 kg of granulated sugar, 1 kg of berries, 200 g of water, 1 teaspoon of citric acid.
- Syrup should be boiled from granulated sugar and water. If the syrup flows down from the spoon in a thick and viscous trickle, then it is ready.
- Pour the prepared berries into the syrup, let it boil, add citric acid and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the stove, let cool for about 6 hours.
- Then we heat it up again and cook for 5 minutes. Cool it down. The finished jam has a good consistency and does not spread over the plate. You may need to repeat the cooking process more than 2 times.
The addition of citric acid prevents the jam from becoming sugared. Video recipe:
From field strawberries, you can cook the so-called jam - five minutes. This method of cooking saves time and, most importantly, vitamins. The proportions of berries and granulated sugar are different. The main thing is that the jam is cooked for no more than 5 minutes and immediately rolled into jars. It is better to pre-clean the berries from sepals, rinse, cover with granulated sugar so that they give juice.
Conclusion
Cook jam from wild strawberries, this is a very tasty berry, please your loved ones. On long winter evenings, enjoy the strawberry aroma of the fruit, which lingers in the jam, as if a piece of a bright summer day was hidden in a jar.
