DYNAMIC DUO

There isn't a single festive table which would not be graced by those two inseparable friends - the sour cherry and the sweet cherry

Sweet cherry for a headache 

The sweet cherry is a plant from the plum family which is widely distributed in Azerbaijan. It is rich in vitamins C and B2, pectins and organic acids. In its wild form the sweet cherry is widely distributed in the woods of Moldova, Crimea, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. It starts to grow in April-May and its branches sprout clusters of aromatic blossom. Its red, black and yellow fruits, round or heart-shaped, can already be enjoyed in June-July. Its sweet berries are usually eaten straightaway or are used for compotes or jams and wine is traditionally made from its somewhat bitter fruits. Besides this, large quantities of wild sweet cherry are used in the manufacturing of pigments for dying fabric. The juice of the wild cherry is used for the best digestion. The wood of the wild cherry tree is used to make tableware, and the thin part for the stems of hookahs. And the sweet cherry is also an excellent nectar-bearing plant: bees can collect up to 35-40 kg of honey from one hectare sown to sweet cherry!

Like everything that is grown in the soil the sweet cherry is also beneficial to health: it is used to treat diseases of the gastro-intestinal tract and the urinary tracts and also in dieting as an appetite-enhancing agent. Sweet and sour cherries are also used for liver disorders. In addition, the sweet cherry is good for heart diseases as it cleans the vessels superbly. Generally speaking, doctors believe that the sweet cherry is beneficial at any age. The pectin and glucose in it help to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood. Sweet cherry is also beneficial to anaemics and also those who suffer from varicose veins because it removes excess blood from the organism and strengthens the vessel walls.

The fruit of the sweet cherry also contain protein, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorous and other vitamins. Just 100 grammes of sweet cherry are enough to meet the daily demand for micro-nutrients. At the same time, these 100 grammes account for just 50 kilo-calories of energy, which also makes it a dietary fruit.

It is not just the fruit of the sweet cherry that is beneficial - so are its stalks. The tea from them is used as a diuretic in kidney ailments.  Moreover, this effect, together with an improvement in metabolism, also helps reduce excessive weight. The tea is also good for arthritis and rheumatism and is used for crystals in the vessels.  To make it a litre of hot water is poured over a handful of sweet cheery stalks dried in the shade and it is drunk in the course of a day. This tea is also good for constipation, as well as a purifying agent in our irrational diet, which is full not only of fatty and sweet dishes, but also surrogates in the form of sausages, luncheon meat and so on. Apart from this the tea is well known for its blood-cleansing properties and for avoiding facial acne. The infusion of sweet cherry stalks "filters" through the kidney, which is congested not only with the wrong food, but also often an abundance of medication. The sweet cherry strengthens the nervous system and enhances resistance to diseases caused by a lack of vitamins.  "Packed" with vitamin A, sweet cherry also aids eyesight.

Its benefits are also boosted by the fact that the sweet cherry has an analgesic effect possibly greater than that of aspirin! It contains the substance anthocyanin, and what's more in quite large amounts from 12 to 25 mg, which is ten times higher than the content of this substance in aspirin! So, if you are feeling stressed or in pain, instead of an analgesic try a handful of natural "pills" instead. Buy pure, clean, undamaged sweet cherries. What's more, they are sweeter and full-bodied with a dark colour. Incidentally, in order to increase the life term of the sweet cherry, don't be in a rush to pull off the stalks because they help to preserve the berries longer.

Sour cherry - the symbol of life 

Not everyone likes the harsh, bitter taste of the sour cherry, but on the other hand it is incomparably wonderful in its processed form. We have come to believe that the ordinary cultivated sour cherry is a natural hybrid of wild sweet cherry and wild sour cherry. At the time of blossoming - May-June - the tree is literally smothered in a pink canopy of the most delicate blossoms. The berries of the wild cherry ripen by the end of July-August and are noted for their smaller size, compared with the "cultured" sour cherry, and their acidic sweet-sour, at times rather bitter taste. In all, about 200 varieties of sour cherry are known, which vary not only in their ripening time and taste, but also in their chemical composition. In Azerbaijan, such varieties of sour cherry are grown as Ganca, Goycay and Gulus, and of the European varieties - Anadolu, shpanka and so on.

There is also a certain mythology associated with the sour cherry: a tree that is covered with flowers before leaves symbolizes man and his mortality: we all come into this world naked and leave it in the same way. To the Chinese the sour cherry is a sign of awakening spring, youth, the blossoming of life, beauty, courage, hope and also the feminine side of nature. In Japan, the flower of the sour cherry is more of a national emblem; this emblem was widely used among the samurai. If a samurai was wounded in battle he was given sour cherry juice to recover his strength and rapidly restore his health. In Switzerland, it was believed that if the fruit of the sour cherry is eaten by a woman who has already given birth to her first-born, then the tree can expect an abundance of fruit.  In Britain, a weird superstition is linked with the sour cherry: if you go into a cherry orchard don't forget to wipe your shoes with the leaves of the cherry tree, otherwise you risk dying through choking on a cherry stone. Gypsy girls use cherry stones as love charms. 

The health benefits of the sour cherry are also very great. It improves the appetite and digestion, is used as a light antiseptic, quenches the thirst and is an excellent aid to diet. Cherry juice with milk is used to treat arthritis, and the juice of the sour cherry is a good haemostatic agent. Magnesium, iron, folic acid, cobalt and vitamins B1, B6 and C contained in sour cherry improve its properties when treating anaemia.  Sour cherry drives nitrogenous waste from the organism and neutralizes environmental hazards and enhanced radiation background. In addition, regular use of sour cherry reduces the risk of gout; it also has a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system. Sour cherry provides an abundance of juice, which helps to digest meat products easier. In traditional medicine, it is not just the fruit of the sour cherry that is used, but also the leaves and stalks. Extract from sour cherry leaves can be used to treat jaundice. But this thoroughly beneficial fruit also has its downside. It is not recommended to be used by patients with diabetes or people with high stomach acidity or who are susceptible to ulcers and pneumonia. Furthermore, cherry stones are toxic and therefore cherry products (compote, jam) should not be stored for long if they contain stones.

SWEETMEATS FROM SOUR CHERRY

Sour cherries

1 egg white

150g of sugar

I teaspoon of lemon juice

Select ripe cherries. Mix the egg white with the sugar, add the lemon juice and beat to a firm, strong sauce. Dip the cherries in the egg mixture, empty on to a dish and leave to dry. Place the cherries in jars and store in a fridge for no longer then a month.

DRIED SOUR CHERRIES

Remove the stones from the ripe cherries, empty into a pan, dry in the sun and then place in a slightly warm oven. The cherries can also be dried as follows: without removing the stones, empty the cherries into a pan and place in a slightly warm oven overnight. Repeat the procedure several times.

MARINATED SOUR CHERRIES

1 kg of cherries

2 glasses of sugar

2 glasses of sauce

5g of cinnamon

5g of cloves

Select large ripe cherries, place them in a baking pot, cover with lid and place the pot in a hot oven.  Next day empty the cherries into a strainer and let the juice drain away. For each glass of juice place 1 glass of sugar, 1 glass of sauce, add the cinnamon and cloves, boil up a marinated water, leave tot cool, empty the select fresh cherries into a bottle, cover with syrup, place on the shelf and store in a cold place.

SWEET WHITE CHERRY JAM

3 kg of sweet cherries 

One lemon

2 kg of sugar

I litre of water

sauce, salt to taste

Although it is not easy to extract juice from white cherries they clean quickly. We separate the flesh of the cherry from the stones and transfer to a large container filled with water. We add several pinches of salt and a little sauce, then our cherry jam will be fine and, more important, we avoid possible worms. We leave the cherries in the water for several hours, then pour out the liquid and place the cherries in the container with the boiling syrup. For the syrup we need a litre of water and a couple of kg of sugar. We will take a little time to cook it later after we start soaking the cherries.

By the time the cherries need to be poured into the syrup it must already be boiling. It doesn't matter if you decide you wait awhile before boiling the syrup and start it when you've finished with the cherries.

The next boiling will take us about three days. During that time we should boil the syrup twice a day, preferably in the morning and evening. First bring to the boil, stir for ten minutes, then stop boiling and leave the mixture to cool. On the evening of the third day, when boiling has finished, we pour out the jam into the prepared jars and place stoppers on them.