List of fruits. Sweet fruits. Russian fruits

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The word "fruit" is not a botanical term. In the people, it is usually understood as the sweet edible fruits of trees and some shrubs.

What is a fruit?

In Latin, fruit means the same as the fruit. And berries, and vegetables, and nuts, and cereals fit into this category. Recently, berries have come to be considered a member of the fruit family, since both can be eaten raw, and vegetables often require heat treatment. There is another classification, under which pumpkin, pineapple, ginger, etc. are included as fruits. These are fruits from which sweet, long-storable preparations can be prepared. This classification is common in European countries.

Can tomatoes, for example, be attributed to fruits, because very tasty jam is made from green tomatoes? In some cases, the fruits of plants are divided into sweet fruits and sour or edible and inedible. Thus, the division into vegetables, fruits and berries is very conditional. There are many other classifications adopted in different branches of science, industry and for others.needs. For example, according to the structure of the fruit, they are divided into stone fruits and pome fruits, by origin - into wild and cultivated or breeding hybrids. Even there is such - red fruits and green. The fact is that sometimes an allergic reaction occurs to the red pigment. This applies to strawberries, oranges, etc., so it is not recommended to eat them in large quantities for pregnant women and young children. These categories can compensate for the lack of potassium and carotene, for example, at the expense of apricots.

Apricot

Apricot and its wild variety, zherdel, grow in southern Russia. Like many sweet fruits, apricots are suitable for jam, but due to the large amount of pectin, they quickly become candied, so they are more often used for marmalade, marshmallow, jam, juice. Dried fruits with pits (apricots) and pitted ones (dried apricots) are steamed with boiling water and used as a filling for pies, and very dry ones are ground into flour and added to the dough. Apricot juice, due to the high content of calcium and iron, is included in the list of fruits that are indicated for the nutrition of pregnant women and for feeding infants. A large amount of phosphorus and magnesium makes it indispensable for the normal functioning of the brain. Potassium contained in the pulp of apricots has a great effect on the cardiovascular system, strengthening the myocardium.

Banana

Fresh apricot is an infrequent visitor to store shelves, but there is a good alternative to it - a banana, a fruit that is constantly on sale. By all characteristics, this is a real berry. In other cases, overseas bananas are more affordable for the consumer thandomestic.

An interesting feature of this plant contributes to its spread throughout the carved places of the world. The fact is that bananas need to be harvested until they are ripe, that is, green and hard. If you leave them on the plant, they will lose their beneficial properties and taste. Plucked fruits, on the contrary, after lying down, become sweeter and fuller in terms of the composition of useful microelements, and the unripe starch of unripe fruits is transformed into easily digestible fruit sugar. A large amount of potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium and phosphorus makes bananas indispensable for baby food. This fruit will also help out if the child has an allergy to gluten contained in cereals. The pulp of bananas contains ephedrine, which slightly increases blood pressure, so it is indicated for hypotensive patients.

Fruits of the Russian land

Russia is rich in plantations of wild fruit and berry plants. In the Far East, honeysuckle grows in this form, in the Kaliningrad region - sea buckthorn, raspberries, blackberries and wild roses, in Bashkiria and the Urals - apple trees, cherries, in Siberia - raspberries, currants, lingonberries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries. The list of fruits and berries is so large that it is not possible to list them all in one small article. Apple, pear, cherry, countless types of berries can be considered primordially Russian.

In addition to those listed above, these are blackberry, blueberry, stone fruit, princess, crowberry, cloudberry, viburnum, mountain ash, hawthorn, shadberry, elderberry, bird cherry, etc. And this is not a complete listfruits and berries that are found on the territory of our country.

Goji Berries or Dereza?

Recently, the fruit of the goji plant has been highly advertised as a weight loss product. If you take a classifier guide that describes fruits and berries, you will find that this wonderful plant is familiar to every Russian and is very widespread throughout Russia, and we call it dereza. This berry was not very popular with our ancestors, because it did not have an original taste and noticeable aroma, such as raspberries, currants or strawberries. In addition, in appearance, edible wolfberry can easily be confused with a poisonous wolfberry. For weight loss, our grandmothers often used gooseberries.

Gooseberries

"Northern grapes", as with the light hand of Michurin they began to call the gooseberry growing in every front garden and just on the streets, is not originally Russian. It was brought to us many centuries ago. In the chronicles of the times of Ivan III there is a mention of this shrub. The taste properties of berries have long been appreciated and used in cooking for compotes, jams, preserves, marmalade, sauces, juices, wine, liqueurs and vinegar. Gooseberries are very useful from a medical point of view. Berries and a decoction of the leaves were drunk for tuberculosis, the antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties of the berries helped with skin inflammation.

With diarrhea and diarrhoea, gooseberries simply cannot be replaced. Its ability to improve stool, improve overall metabolism, remove toxins andraise the tone has no analogues. It is difficult to find a more effective means to combat excess weight than gooseberries (berries in summer, vinegar in winter).

Drink from berries and fruits to improve metabolism

For a long time, natural fruit vinegar with honey has been used to improve metabolism. For weight loss, two tablespoons of vinegar with the same amount of honey are diluted with a glass of warm water and drunk on an empty stomach. Good homemade vinegar is a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. Therefore, it is quite fair that the passion for this product has recently begun to gain momentum. Making vinegar is not hard at all. It only needs delicious fruits or berries and a little sugar. Ripening time - 2 weeks in the light and 40 days in a dark place. Vinegar can be additionally flavored with herbs and honey. 3% homemade vinegar is perfect not only as a vitamin and energy drink, but also for pickling meat and fish, for dressing salads, and it is also used for cosmetic purposes. The list of fruits used to make vinegar would be incomplete without the mention of apples.

Apples

Early and late, giants and small ranet - these fruits are loved by everyone and have practically no contraindications. They are used in dietary and clinical nutrition, juice is squeezed out of them, compotes, jams, jelly are cooked, sauces and vinegar are made. With anemia, glandular apples are eaten. Iron needles or nails are stuck into the pulp of the fruit, left for half a day, then the metal objects are removed. Now the apple can be eaten. Oxidized sticks are used repeatedly, since witheach time the chemical reaction between the acid and the metal is faster and more intense.

Unlike many other fruits, apples are in great demand not only for their excellent culinary and medicinal qualities, but also for their cheapness and availability. There are always plenty of apples in the vastness of Russia. In other years, harvests exceed the capacity of processors, and apples disappear, which is a pity. This gift of nature is worth appreciating and using for he alth.

Fruit plants - guests of Russian lands

Before the revolution of 1917, orange and lemon trees, pineapples and palm trees grew in the winter gardens of the Grand Dukes. Growing tropical fruits in a greenhouse is not so difficult if you provide them with sufficient light, humidity and air temperature. However, as a rule, berries and fruits from greenhouses do not have the same properties as their counterparts grown in natural conditions. Agronomists have learned to zone such plant varieties that have not taken root in our conditions before.

Breeders create new cultures, and they gradually become part of the Russian flora. Gardeners and gardeners have long and successfully grown strawberries, physalis, chaenomeles, mahonia, actinidia, lemongrass and other plants on their plots that are not quite traditional for our soils and climate. The process is also going in the opposite direction - in Europe, the Far Eastern honeysuckle is slowly but surely settling in.

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle, or Far Eastern cherry, is one of those fruits that are not harvested industrially, which is a pity, because this berryhas a delicate taste and delicate aroma, reminiscent of blueberries. Honeysuckle makes amazing jam, juice and wine. The berries are dried, and in winter they are brewed and drunk as a diuretic, anti-inflammatory and multivitamin agent. Fresh crushed berries are applied to ulcers with eczema and other skin lesions. An unpretentious shrub blooms first of the fruit crops of Russian latitudes. The fruits appear already in May - June, 1-2 weeks earlier than strawberries.

Traditional fruits for New Year's holiday

Smells of tangerines, chocolate and pine needles are the usual flavors of the New Year. Even in Soviet times, tangerines and chocolates were part of the children's New Year's gift set. There were practically no fruits in free sale in winter, and the smell of tangerine, mixed with frosty air, acquired a special, forever memorable shade of the holiday. But dwarf trees with bright fruits and glossy waxy leaves adorn our window sills all year round. Among them are lemons, oranges, tangerines and other citrus fruits.

The list would be incomplete without tiny kumquats and green limes. Due to the large amount of vitamin C, they are recommended to eat during the rehabilitation period after illness and to increase immunity. If you use citrus fruits regularly, it will significantly reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood and cleanse the lymph. In cooking, citrus fruits are used for jams, preserves, marmalades, as well as in sauces for seafood, fish and meat dishes. If you are allergic to red fruits, then choose yellow-green ones.grapefruit or pomelo.

Folk methods of harvesting and processing fruits

Even today, when there are almost no undeveloped lands left in Europe, cities are actively growing and industrial enterprises are being built, in Russia more than 20% of the territories are free and are thickets of wild plants. Until now, people go to the forest for useful fruits. From time immemorial, in summer and autumn, our ancestors were engaged in the collection and preparation of gifts of nature, such as berries, herbs, mushrooms, nuts, root crops and fruits. Russian people met winter and long fasts (Christmas and Great) with full bins. They knew how to preserve berries and fruits in a variety of ways. In the summer they picked apples, pears and other large and sweet fruits. Fresh fruits were cut into thin slices, laid out on trays and covered with a thin cloth to protect against insects and dust. This was done on dry and hot days.

Other berries and fruits were harvested in this way, for example, apricots, grapes, bird cherry, cherries, plums, wild roses, etc. In the novels of Russian writers, tinctures and liqueurs made from cranberries, cherries, currants, and mountain ash are often mentioned. Women cooked jam, jelly, marmalade, and not always with sugar, but often with honey, which was always in abundance. An amazing delicacy was made from green gooseberries stuffed with walnuts. Gooseberries were soaked in vodka, kept overnight in a glacier and boiled with cherry leaves. In some sweet preparations, citrus fruits, rare for that time, were placed for greater flavor. A list of old recipes for Russian cuisine would beincomplete without national seasonings for fish, meat and cereals. The ancestors were great masters in inventing various concoctions, that is, sauces. For them, in the fall, certain types of fruits were soaked and fermented.

Soaked fruits

Urination, or, as it is also called, fermentation, is one of the most common ways of harvesting fruits in the old days. This was done with lingonberries, cloudberries, cranberries, apples, pears, plums and watermelons. Clean, flawless fruits were placed in oak barrels, interspersed with straw, boiled water with s alt and a small amount of sugar, m alt or rye flour, and kept for a week in a warm room for fermentation. After this period, the barrels were transferred to a cold cellar. Further fermentation lasted about a month. After that, the product was ready for use. Soaked apples are well preserved until the summer. They are unusually tasty, but only late, hard varieties, such as Antonovka, anise, saffron pepin and some others, are suitable for such processing. Oak barrels and straw remarkably enrich the aroma of pissing. But if they are not available, then you can use enameled, glass or ceramic dishes. Soaked lingonberries make delicious sauces for fatty meat dishes, duck and game. The berries are mixed with a small amount of rye flour (for density), brewed with boiling water, s alt and sugar are added to taste. Such blasts have always been an indispensable component of Russian cuisine.

Watermelon

Can watermelon be considered a fruit? There is no consensus on this matter, but no matter what categoryhe did not belong - to fruits, vegetables or berries, everyone loves watermelons. Both adults and children are looking forward to the watermelon season. The African fruit has long taken root not only in the south, but also in the central strip of Russia, since it needs a dry and hot climate to fully ripen. During the watermelon season, people suffering from kidney stones have a great opportunity to get rid of this problem. Watermelon juice contains substances that promote the dissolution of stones, and its diuretic properties accelerate the excretion of s alt. Folic acid is indispensable for the synthesis of proteins and promotes blood renewal. It is also present in many vegetables, but it is always destroyed during heat treatment, so during the watermelon season you should not miss the opportunity to improve your body.

The harsh nature of Russia gives us rich gifts every year. Many types of fruits and berries are well studied and actively used for food and medicinal purposes, but there are some that we have forgotten, preferring synthetic vitamins and exotic exports. It can't last forever. It is possible that someday we will return to currant, raspberry and blackberry tea, viburnum and mountain ash drinks, and we will eat fat duck with cranberry broth or soaked watermelons.