Creating a bath broom consists of several stages, and drying is only one of the stages. Collecting branches, knitting and steaming are integral components of obtaining a high-quality broom, but these harvesting stages are not relevant to the topic under discussion.
How to properly dry bath brooms
You just need to note an essential detail - to get a good broom, every stage matters, not just drying.
Although creating a worthwhile broom will require considerable experience and subject knowledge, the process should be carried out without fanaticism. What is more important is not the observance of small nuances, but knowledge of the basics, to which experience and the corresponding skill will ultimately be added.
Preparing brooms for a bath
Artificial options for drying brooms are always unacceptable. It is necessary to dry the broom in natural conditions, although this will require more time.
It is necessary to dry the broom in natural conditions
What do brooms not need during the drying process? Avoid the following:
- drafts;
- direct light and illuminated room;
- high humidity.
These factors should be minimized and, if possible, eliminated from the drying process altogether. Please consider their possible presence when following further recommendations.
Drying bath brooms
Prices for bath brooms
bath brooms
The optimal time of year for harvesting brooms
According to traditions, you need to start preparing such accessories for the steam room from the beginning of June.
Photo of succulent birch branches
It is at this time that all plants bloom. The foliage on tree branches grows stronger, gaining juice and aroma. Therefore, it is at this time that it is necessary to collect plant branches.
It is quite reasonable to start collecting bath brooms in June, because the leaves of the trees are already quite large and filled with essential oil glands.
Young shoots of large size demonstrate high elasticity, so the product made from them will be the best.
But how to cut branches:
- Branches should be cut in dry weather;
- If the foliage gets wet in the rain, it will subsequently deteriorate, darken, fly around and curl during drying. Therefore, in rainy or too wet weather, branches should not be cut. It's better to wait a couple of days.
Remember
- Observe procurement deadlines. Carry out cutting of branches in early summer. After steaming, young shoots become elastic and soft, and the leaf holds tightly to them.
- Dry according to the rules. Avoid high temperatures and exposure to UV rays. Due to these factors, the foliage turns brown, becomes fragile, and essential oils evaporate.
- Store in optimal conditions . Dampness leads to irreversible consequences: mold appears and a putrid smell appears. High temperatures lead to fragility, evaporation of esters, and leaf fall.
It’s not difficult to prepare brooms yourself, the main thing is to dry and store them correctly. As a result, you will always have a useful attribute for visiting the bathhouse.
Video: how to prepare and dry a birch broom
Types of bath brooms
Products from the most common breeds
Few newcomers to the bath business understand which broom is best for a bath:
- The most popular are birch and oak;
- Also, experienced bath attendants often prefer combined options, when shoots of different trees are collected in one product. For example, several eucalyptus shoots are added to a collection of oak branches.
Combined version of the sauna bundle
Which brooms are best for a bath is up to the steam room lover to decide. There are no clear rules here. Try different options and see for yourself which one you like best.
Features of preparing a broom for a bath
Raw materials for the future broom should be cut only in ecologically clean areas, which are far from highways. This should be done in the morning, after the dew has disappeared. Then the broom can serve for quite a long time.
Advice! Experts recommend cutting off biennial branches. They grow closer to the ground. They are cut 50-60 cm in length.
Harvesting oak branches
How to knit a broom correctly
Some people do not tie the products in advance, but make peculiar sheaves from the prepared branches. The upper branches of such a sheaf provide reliable protection to the lower ones. Hay is placed on top of the sheaf for additional protection.
And only when a person is going to take a steam bath in a bathhouse, he pulls out the required number of branches from such a sheaf and ties a broom. However, this technology is quite inconvenient.
It is better to prepare in advance the number of bundles you need for the steam room for the year.
Knitting a broom for a steam room should be carried out according to the following rules:
- First, spread the cut branches on burlap for several days;
- Then you need to collect brooms from the withered branches.
Knitting technology
Knitting instructions:
- place the branches in a pile;
- place a cord on a stack of branches;
- wrap a stack of branches with cord;
- pull the cord;
- tie the cord into a strong knot;
- tighten the knot on the stack of branches;
- trim the ends of the cord;
- hang the brooms to dry.
Advice! Don't forget to clear the branches of knots and leaves in the area that will later become the handle.
If you know how to brew such a broom, you can steam with it several times.
Birch brooms drying
As for the handle of the product, it should be made quite long. This makes steaming much more convenient. After all, it will not slip out during vigorous swings.
Advice! Don't make the product heavy. Otherwise, it will not be convenient to use.
How to make a comfortable handle?
The handle of the Russian broom needs to be carefully shaped; if there are any knots, they will need to be trimmed so that they do not put pressure on your steamed palm when you steam. Also, the handle needs to be made not only comfortable, it will also need to be cleared of leaves, and its base needs to be evenly trimmed. This is done so that the end of the handle can be used to tap the muscles and massage the body.
Such end tapping, kneading and patting on the muscles gives a wonderful and amazing sensation of a thorough and deep massage. The handle is made ten centimeters long and strong, so that the rods tied into a bundle can be used as a rolling pin, rolling and squeezing the deeply steamed muscles to pull them from the bottom up, then from the top down.
Our Russian ancestors only after such a procedure began to steam directly with the green part of the broom. As a rule, broom greens were made no larger than the size of a human head; To make it spherical in shape, it was formed by carefully selecting branches one after the other.
The ends of the branches from the outside should never be cut off, because they are softer and thinner, otherwise they will become prickly and can damage the steamed skin.
Linen twine is quite suitable for using knitting. Do not use wire. Today, strange individuals selling brooms near bathhouses use wire and don’t think about it. I would like to wish “health” to such people, because they, selling brooms, green healthy products, offering them to people, do not think at all about their health. I think everyone will be returned for such “good” done.
Well, buyers: if the broom you bought is tied with wire, then replace it with linen twine.
Bath broom drying technology
How to properly dry bath brooms? There are quite a few ways to carry out this procedure.
However, they all have one important rule in common: drying should be done exclusively in the shade.
- When exposed to direct sunlight, the foliage will curl and fade. In addition, all essential oils and aroma will disappear from it. At the first steaming, such a product “goes bald”, leaving all its foliage in the basin;
Advice! Brooms should be dried avoiding strong drafts.
- The best place to dry is a dark, cool and dry place. Products must be hung or stacked very carefully. At the same time, they need to be turned over daily to ensure even drying;
- The simplest drying method is hanging on a pole;
Drying by hanging on poles
- A fan-shaped broom is considered ideal. To get it after a week of drying, they should be tightly tied and placed tightly against each other. Due to this, they will flatten over time. And only then can they be transferred to a storage location.
Advice! A well-dried product has leaves that have a matte greenish tint and a pleasant natural scent of balsamic oil.
If the broom is too dry
There are times when the broom gets too dry. In such a situation, do not get upset and throw away the product. Everything can be corrected.
This kind of bathhouse broom needs to be steamed longer than usual, and then left on the heater. The hot stones will emit steam, which will be absorbed by the branches.
Why are oak leaves and twigs so useful?
First, a little science: the leaves and twigs of the tree contain very useful essential oils, as well as substances called tannins (the oak gave them this name). Thanks to their effect, wounds and abrasions heal on the skin, it becomes velvety and acquires a delicate matte finish. Therefore, an oak bathhouse is recommended for those whose skin has inflammation, is prone to oiliness and excessive porosity.
In addition, the aroma emanating from essential oils will wonderfully calm frayed nerves and relieve stress, helping to stabilize blood pressure (which is a godsend for hypertensive patients). And it becomes much easier for cores in a steam room with an oak broom.
And thanks to the large leaves that hold tightly to the branches, such a broom works like a fan, quickly pumping up steam.
Soaking a bath broom
Not everyone knows how to properly soak a bath broom. Before steaming, the product must be washed and rinsed in water. Their foliage should not be soggy or flabby. Carefully monitor the condition of the brooms.
Advice! After steaming brooms in water, you should not pour it out. If you wash your hair with this water, it will have a beneficial effect on the condition of your hair.
If the broom is made from fresh twigs, then it should not be steamed. Simply rinse it with water to remove any dust or dirt from the leaves.
Oak brooms
How to brew a bath broom correctly? There are several methods to perform this task:
First method (operative)
You need to do the following:
- put the broom in a bowl of warm water for a quarter of an hour;
- add hot water to the bowl and cover it with a basin;
- Turn the product over at regular intervals.
Second method (fast)
It's worth doing the following:
- lower the product into a steamer with hot water for a couple of minutes;
- remove the broom and, without shaking off the water, go to the steam room;
- hold a broom over the hot stones of the bathhouse.
Now you know how to properly soak bath brooms, and you can get down to business.
"Competitors" of birch
Naturally, not only white-trunked tree is used as bath paraphernalia, but also other types of trees, for example, eucalyptus, oak or linden, and even nettle, although it is not a tree.
So, now let’s look at what advantages the above trees have:
- Oak - brooms made from it can be found much more often than birch ones. They will become an indispensable equipment in the bathhouse for people with very oily skin texture. Oak has a drying effect on the skin. It also successfully fights high blood pressure (hypertension). These brooms begin to be harvested closer to autumn, since the tree itself begins to bloom during this period.
Advice
Before choosing a particular oak tree, pay attention to whether burdock grows nearby. If not, then in the future the leaves of this tree will simply fall off when dried. This is of no use to you.
- Association with linden is balance, balance, calm. A linden broom relieves migraines and headaches, and helps well with VSD, as a result of which the first listed problems appear. It also has a positive effect on the body suffering from insomnia, quickly heals wounds, and helps to recover from colds.
- Eucalyptus tincture is a must-have for true connoisseurs of Russian baths. It is usually used to water the walls in the steam room. Eucalyptus serves as an antiseptic; it warms up the bronchi and can be inhaled for colds and pneumonia. A broom made from this plant speeds up recovery and fights bruises and skin inflammation.
Proper storage of brooms
How to store bath brooms so that they do not lose their properties? Only experienced bath attendants can answer this question.
If you have prepared products, it is important to be able to preserve their beneficial properties. To do this, they must be stored in a dark and dry place.
The room should be well ventilated, but there should be no drafts. An excellent option in this case could be the attic of a house or garage.
There is another method that ensures excellent preservation of steam room brooms. However, it is more suitable for rural residents. You can store products in hay.
In this case, they will absorb even more nutrients and natural aromas. City residents can store brooms in vacuum bags.
Storing an oak broom using the vacuum method
Preliminary preparation
Before drying the broom, it must be collected and tied. Young side branches are cut from trees; two-year-old shoots are considered ideal for these purposes. In addition to trees, bushes are used, for example, currants and herbs wormwood, nettle, and tansy. It is important to consider that the drying time of the leaves for all components will be different. It depends on the thickness of the sheet, its density, and the amount of internal liquid. Therefore, birch and linden, for example, will dry out faster than oak. And bushes and herbs will not have to dry for as long as any trees.
Some bathhouse attendants prefer to dry the branches first and then tie them into a broom. The best way is considered to be drying in a haystack, the branches are stacked on top of each other and alternated with hay. This method requires regularly turning and rearranging the branches so that they dry evenly. Branches dried in this way are knitted immediately before steaming. But this is not always convenient, and not every bathhouse lover has hay.
Therefore, the more common method is pre-knitting brooms. Young branches collected in June, full of essential oils and beneficial substances, are tied into bundles.
