there anyone among gourmets and lovers of exotic dishes one who abandons the simple Ukrainian borscht?I think no.This dish is firmly won the hearts of the Slavic peoples for its extraordinary taste and bright colors.However, few people thought about why so-called soup.This dish has been known since the 18th century, and its main ingredient, in addition to vegetable soup was a plant, which is harvested young shoots in the spring in the woods.Borsch, cow parsnip, bear paw, Baudrand, barchovnik, dream listovets, Kozelets, bolyachechnaya grass virloma - all grass peak.She has many other names - in each locality to use their.
Description
plant peak (cow parsnip) belongs to the family umbrella.This is truly gigantic grass, sometimes reaching a height of more than three meters.No wonder the plant is named after the hero of ancient Greece Hercules - Herácléum.From the side it resembles a mixture of burdock with jagged leaves and huge umbrellas dill.Stalk hogweed powerful, branched.Huge dissected into 5 large share of peak leaves (grass is not for nothing called "bear paw" - a reference to their appearance) reach up to 25 cm in diameter.From above they are bare and smooth, the bottom - a little hairy, rough.Root thick, straight.Pican grass blooms from midsummer until the autumn.Five-white small flowers are collected in complex umbrellas.
Application
In the early summer, when the plants are still young greens, dairy, it is used in salads, cooking soups.Stem young hogweed after clearing of rough hairy skin can be eaten raw.He loves the kids - it's first green after the long winter.Taste crispy stalks unusual - juicy, slightly sour.Due to the high palatability grass Pican often grown on private plots.Soup of young nettle leaves and hogweed not only tired of cold saturated with vitamins, they help get rid of depression, accumulated during the short winter days.The chemical composition of plants is very rich.It contains sucrose, coumarins, anthocyanins, essential oils, polyacetylene compounds and umbelliferoza.
Agriculture Pican herb is used to make silage.In the hay she will not do as she leaves a large, dry, and often they do not rot, spoiling other herbs.But in a silo it is the place, cow parsnip - perfect fodder for livestock.
Medicine
peak (cow parsnip) is widely used in folk medicine to treat diarrhea, as well as a choleretic, analgesic.Despite the fact that the adult plant leaves cause burns and huge boils and can not be touched with bare hands, extracts from this herb is an excellent remedy for the treatment of dermatitis.Also, decoctions of hogweed apply with neurosis and epilepsy.For the manufacture of medicinal products suitable for both the leaves and roots of the grass.When collecting the plant need to take precautions (as mentioned above).Dried leaves of the plant with a thin layer in a well ventilated area.They constantly turn over, otherwise they may rot.
