Food Alphabet
Chinese lemongrass
Chinese lemongrass (schizandra) is a woody climbing vine with edible berries and bright green leaves on pink petioles. Its pale pink or yellowish flowers exude a strong lemon scent, although there is no nectar in the flowers. At the end of August – at the beginning of September (or even in October), spherical orange-red fruits ripen on it, which, due to their specific taste, are not subject to the invasion of birds and, moreover, do not crumble until the onset of frost.
Indeed, the taste of lemongrass pulp is tart and extremely sour. At the same time, the skin is sweet and salty, and the seeds are bitter-burning. That's why the Chinese called lemongrass " the berry of five flavors." At the same time, Chinese doctors have known about the healing properties of lemongrass for 2000 years, and for them, the popularity of lemongrass is second only to the "root of life" – ginseng.
In Europe, the lemongrass came quite recently-in the 19th century-and since then, almost all parts of this plant are used for medicinal purposes: fruits, seeds, bark, leaves, oil, young shoots (stems) and roots.
Well, in cooking, lemongrass berries are traditionally used for making jelly, kvass, wine, jam, jam, syrup, mors, filling for sweets (in the confectionery industry) and soft drinks with a tonic effect.
