Toxic or not? Rowan berries with tart-sourish enjoyment

Falsely classified as toxic: But rowanberries need to be heated well!
If you walk through fields and meadows in the autumn, you can spot bright red rowan berries in hedges and along the way. They are not toxic, as is often assumed. However, the harsh wild fruits should be heated before eating to convert the bitter parasinic acid into the well-tolerated sorbic acid.
Rowan berries can be processed into jam, jelly, compote, syrup, juice and liqueur.

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They also taste good in pastries and cakes. For a tasty sauce, the fruits are soaked overnight in water with a dash of vinegar. Then strain, boil gently with a little water and pass through a sieve. If you like, you can mix the rowan berry with sweet-tasting fruits such as apples, quinces or pears and season with cinnamon and cardamom. Then simmer for another 15 minutes and pour into glasses.

The dried berries can also be mixed with fruit and herbal teas. A rowan chutney with onions, tomatoes, red peppers and raisins goes well with soft cheese and game dishes. Incidentally, the wild fruit is very healthy and contains plenty of vitamin C (80-100 mg per 100 g berries), provitamin A, essential oils, fiber such as pectin and valuable phytochemicals. A musk of rowanberries should help against loss of appetite and indigestion. In addition, the fruits are used in folk medicine for colds, rheumatism and gout.

The mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia), as the rowan berry is actually called, belongs to the rose family and is widespread throughout Europe. It grows preferentially on warm forest edges, clear cuts and in hedges. In autumn, the tree bears very bitter, slightly bitter berries, which are orange-yellow to coral-red. The fruits can be found until the end of October if they are not previously nibbled by birds and small mammals. Therefore, should not be harvested too late. With the first frosts, the fruits taste sweeter and less bitter, but also contain less vitamin C. Before preparation, the berries are thoroughly washed and plucked by the umbels. Heike Kreutz, bzfe