Regular consumption of honeysuckle has a beneficial effect on testosterone production in men, improving body tone and increasing libido.
Some more beneficial properties of honeysuckle for adult men:
Honeysuckle is recommended as complementary food from the age of 9 months onwards. A slight bitter taste stimulates the appetite. You can start with one berry a day, gradually increasing the portion.
Important: before introducing a new product into the diet of a child under one year old, consult your pediatrician.
Honeysuckle helps strengthen children’s immune system, protect against viruses, improve concentration and endurance.
Can honeysuckle be harmful to health?
People who have pancreatic diseases, peptic ulcers, or chronic gastritis with high acidity should be more careful when consuming honeysuckle. Excess ascorbic acid can cause heartburn, pain and discomfort, especially if you eat more than normal.
It is also recommended to eat honeysuckle with caution in case of allergic reactions . If you have food allergies and want to try honeysuckle for the first time in your life, eat one or two berries and observe your body’s reaction for a few hours. If there are no alarming symptoms, you can eat more, but within the recommended norm.
Recipes for simple and delicious dishes with honeysuckle
Honeysuckle berries are tender, juicy, and do not last long. But you can prepare simple, tasty and healthy dishes from them.
1. Pureed frozen honeysuckle
A simple recipe that allows you to preserve all the properties of fresh berries.
Ingredients
| Honeysuckle | 1 kg |
| Sugar | 1 kg |
Preparation
- Rinse the berries and let the water drain.
- Grind the berries along with sugar in a food processor or meat grinder.
- Place puree into small disposable containers.
- At room temperature, let the sugar dissolve for 1-2 hours.
- Place in the freezer. Store for up to 10 months.
Honeysuckle pureed with sugar can be added to cottage cheese, yogurt, porridge, pancakes and pancakes. A few hours before use, you need to remove it from the refrigerator.
2. Five-minute honeysuckle jam
The fastest jam recipe allows you to preserve a maximum of vitamins, compared to the usual “long” method of cooking the delicacy.
Ingredients
| Honeysuckle | 1 kg |
| Sugar | 1 kg |
| Water | 1 glass |
| Lemon acid | 1-2 g |
Preparation
- Wash the berries and place in a wide-bottomed pan.
- Pour in all the sugar, add a glass of water.
- Boil over low heat until foam appears and simmer for 2-5 minutes. Wait until the jam has cooled completely.
- Repeat the previous step twice more. At the last step, you can add citric acid on the tip of a knife so that the jam does not become sugary.
3. Honeysuckle salad
An unusual vitamin recipe that will diversify your summer diet.
Ingredients
| Brynza | 200 g |
| Honeysuckle | 200 g |
| Basil | 1 bunch |
| Lemon | ¼ pcs. |
| Honey | 1 tsp. |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp. l. |
Preparation
- Cut the cheese into cubes.
- Tear the basil into large pieces with your hands.
- Mix feta cheese, basil, honeysuckle berries in a bowl, sprinkle with the juice of a quarter of a lemon mixed with honey and butter. Ready.
Where and when to collect honeysuckle
Garden and wild plants bear fruit at approximately the same time, in late June – early July. The period of ripening and harvesting of berries is short, usually two to three weeks. If you plan to go into the forest to pick berries, follow the usual rules for safely picking wild berries:
- choose areas away from roads;
- Before picking the berries, check whether it is definitely an edible honeysuckle;
- At home, rinse the berries well under running water.
The largest harvest can be harvested in sunlit lowlands, protected from the wind.
How to properly store honeysuckle
Honeysuckle has tender, juicy and perishable berries. They are stored in the refrigerator for no more than 2-3 days. Therefore, it is best to process them immediately after collection: boil juice, jelly, jam, or freeze them for the winter.
Varieties of honeysuckle
The most valued varieties of honeysuckle are those with large berries, a soft, balanced taste and a bountiful harvest.
The most popular varieties of honeysuckle:
- “Bakcharskaya”;
- “silginka”;
- “parabel”;
- “kingfisher”;
- “viliga”;
- “violet”;
- “kuminovka”;
- “Laura”;
- “Slav”.
The most productive varieties that give a stable and abundant harvest (more than 3 kg per bush) are “blue cliff”, “yugana”, “daughter of a giant”, “Bakchar giant”, “ussulga” (2).
Questions and answers
Our expert, gastroenterologist Evgeniy Belousov, answers popular questions about honeysuckle.
Is it possible to eat honeysuckle every day? In what quantity?
Honeysuckle can be consumed daily in reasonable quantities. Eating 100-200 g of berries per day is healthy and quite safe.
Is honeysuckle jam healthy?
Most of the vitamins and minerals of this berry are preserved in the jam. But still, some nutrients are lost during the cooking process due to exposure to high temperatures, for example, vitamin C. In addition, there is always a lot of sugar in jam, so it is recommended to eat it little by little.
Does frozen honeysuckle retain its beneficial properties?
Yes, frozen berries retain most of their beneficial properties, vitamins and minerals. This allows you to enjoy honeysuckle all year round and reap the health benefits even outside of its ripening season.