If you want to harvest juniper berries, you need a lot of patience. However, when the berries are ready to be harvested, many delicious delicacies can be conjured up from them.
Dozens of juniper species (Juniperus) and varieties are available for your home garden. But it can be many years before the first juniper berries appear. If you want to harvest juniper berries, you should therefore bring a lot of patience with you.
It is also important to select the right juniper species for the hobby garden in order to be able to really harvest the tasty berries after a few years. The variety Juniperus communis (e.g. here at Amazon) is ideal for this. We will now tell you which other tips to consider when harvesting.
Male or Female?
Before the harvest, the most important thing is to make sure that the juniper bears berries at all. This requires a male and a female specimen of the plant so that pollination can take place. After all, only female or only male flowers can be found on each of these bushes. If pollination was successful, it still takes three years before the pollinated plants will bear ripe berries. Technically, these are not berries at all, but rather cones. In the harvest year, the juniper berries can be recognized by their blue-black colour.
When is the perfect time to harvest juniper berries?
After several years have passed and the juniper cones have turned blue-black, late autumn is the ideal time for the harvest. By the way, juniper berries that are not yet ripe and should not be harvested yet can be recognized by their green color. So you can easily estimate when it is time to harvest the fresh juniper berries.
This is usually the case from the end of August or the beginning of September. The green berries should definitely remain on the bush and not be removed during this year's harvest. Because these berries need another year until they ripen and can then also be harvested in the coming late autumn.
Collect juniper berries - this is how it works without pain
The juniper is avery prickly contemporary. The many prickly leaves can lead to unsightly injuries, from which you can usually not protect yourself adequately even with gloves. Therefore, this method of harvesting is more appropriate:
- place a sufficiently large cloth directly under the juniper
- use a stick to tap against the branches of the juniper (do not use too much force or the plant may be damaged)
- then the fruits fall onto the cloth
- Now use gloves to handle harvested fruit from branches and needles
During the entire harvest, it is also important to ensure that the juniper berries are not unnecessarily squeezed or crushed. This is also important when storing the berries later, which first have to be dried.
Drying juniper berries after harvest
After harvesting, the juniper berries should be dried in an airy and shady place. The complete drying process of the juniper berries can take up to three weeks. A dark, preferably warm and dry room is ideal for this purpose, which should also be sufficiently well ventilated. It is best to monitor the progress of the drying process on a daily basis.
Any berries that either appear brown or have holes in them should be discarded as soon as possible. Because they are not edible and the holey juniper berries could even contain living insects. This is why prompt disposal is so important so that the pests cannot attack the rest of the juniper berry harvest.
Store juniper berries correctly
Later on, the juniper berries are best kept tightly closed so that they can be enjoyed for as long as possible. However, only completely dried juniper berries should be stored in each container so that mold cannot form on the cones, which may still be slightly damp. This could eventually spoil the entire juniper berry harvest.
» Expert tip: In order to be able to avoid exactly this problem right from the start, it is very useful if the entire juniper berry harvest is divided into several containers for storage.
If stored in a dry jar with an airtight seal, the berries can be stored in a dark, cool place for up to a year. Thus, the dried juniper berries will most likely last until the next harvest in late autumn.
How can juniper berries be usedbecome?
For cooking:
Due to their many essential oils, juniper berries are very popular as a spice. They go particularly well with hearty dishes such as:
- Sauerkraut
- Meat
- pies
- Game marinades
- other sauces
The juniper berries also taste very good together with nuts and raisins.
As a medicinal plant:
In addition, juniper is known as a medicinal plant. Accordingly, there is even a saying that the juniper berries are said to have nine doctors stuck in these small cones. Especially in the past, juniper berries were used as tinctures, essential oils, as well as tea and syrup to combat the following diseases:
- Joint Pain
- Indigestion
- Infections
- Women's Disease
To make liquor:
There are also many liquor producers who also harvest juniper berries in large quantities. They like to use the blue-black juniper berries to make various kinds of schnapps.
» Important note: If you want to use juniper berries in your own food for a certain spice, it is better not to overdose the berries. There's a good reason for that. Too many juniper berries in food can have a negative effect on the kidneys. A small dose is therefore recommended, especially as this is completely sufficient due to the strong aroma of the juniper berries. However, people who already suffer from kidney disease should keep their hands off the tasty, aromatic juniper berries.