How to store blueberries

One of the most delicious berries of summer is blueberries. In its raw form there is its most useful, but the fruits ripen and depart quickly. Therefore, it is worth using some ways to preserve the berries for a long time and make a reasonable supply for the winter.

Fresh blueberry storage

To save blueberries in their raw form can not do without a refrigerator. If you put a bowl of berries in it, they will remain quite suitable for three or four days.

You can extend the shelf life as follows:

Enumerate the berries so that they do not contain debris, spoiled and too over-ripe fruits. Wash blueberries is not necessary.
Prepare a small and clean container. A prerequisite is the presence of holes in it, which will provide airing for blueberries. Capacity should not be metallic. Bilberry is able to react with this material and discolor.
Put a paper towel folded in four layers on the bottom of the container. It is designed to absorb moisture, which often remains on the berries. It will save blueberries from mold.
Fold the berries into a container, evenly spread over the surface of towels.
Send blueberries in the fridge. In the coldest part of the berries can not be put. Too low a temperature will damage the fruit. The fruit drawer is also not suitable: most often there is a high level of humidity and little ventilation. These factors can accelerate the formation of a layer of mold on blueberries. The most suitable place for berries is the middle and lower shelves of the refrigerator.

If you store blueberries on them, the fruits will remain in excellent condition for up to ten days.

Of course, a small part of them still spoil. Therefore, in a container placed in the refrigerator, you should look every day and pick those berries that are slightly lost freshness. When there is a lot of blueberries and you need to save it in its raw form, you can do this:

Go through the berries, remove even slightly spoiled, crumpled and sluggish. If there is a stem on blueberries, it should also be carefully separated from the fruit. It is quite edible, but leaves behind a bitter aftertaste.
Prepare the vinegar solution: for three parts of water take one part vinegar. It will help destroy fungal spores and protect blueberries from the development of mold.
Place the berries in a hole-filled pot (sieve, colander) and lower it in the vinegar solution for half a minute. You need to shake the container a little to get the liquid on all parts of the fruit.
Rinse the berries in cool water. This will save the blueberry from the smell and taste of vinegar.
Spread the berries on a flat surface covered with paper towels. Dry the fruit well. This can be done outdoors or in the oven, holding the berries there for about ten minutes (50 degrees).
Fully dry fruits poured into a container with holes and send to the refrigerator on the middle or lower shelf.

Blueberries should be kept fresh without significant losses for at least a month.

How to store frozen blueberries

To preserve blueberries for a long time, this method is suitable as freezing:

Prepare shallow dishes - a tray, baking tray, baking dish, and a chopping board. You can use a metal container, but be sure to put parchment paper on its bottom. Dishes should be dry and clean.
Spread the enumerated fruits in one layer. Between them should be left to let millimeter, but the distance: the berry must be frozen each separately. This will help to further prevent them from sticking together and turning into one frozen lump.
Send blueberry dishes to the freezer. It will take from two to three hours to freeze the fruit.
Pour the blueberries into a bag that can be sealed.
Send the berries back to the freezer.

In this condition, blueberries will be perfectly preserved for at least one year.

Blueberries, dried for winter

Dried blueberries are well preserved throughout the winter. In order for the berry to lie longer, you need:

Collect fruits in sunny and warm weather.
Start work after the morning dew has completely evaporated.
Enumerate berries: remove leaves and twigs, damaged and crushed blueberries. Remove from the fruit of the stem.
Rinse the berries under running water using a colander.
Transfer the blueberries to a sieve and leave for an hour to make the water as much as possible.

Berries can be dried:

outdoors;
in an electric drier;
in the oven.

In the air, blueberries can be brought to the desired condition of 6-10 days. For drying, you need to choose a place where direct sunlight does not fall. This will help keep more vitamins in it.

Drying in the oven should start with a temperature of 40-50 degrees. As soon as the berries podvyalyatsya, you can increase the warming up to 60-70 degrees.

The baking sheet on which fruits are spread out, it is necessary to shake up sometimes. Due to this, blueberries dry evenly.

Dried fruits should be stored in linen bags, paper bags in a dry and cool place. For two years they will remain completely fit for human consumption.

Heat treatment of blueberries before storage for the winter

In addition to freezing and drying, there are other ways to help preserve blueberries for the whole winter. A good and economical method is steaming the berries:

Prepare half-liter or liter jars, rinse them and pour over boiling water. You can hold the container for a few minutes over the steam.
Bilberries sort out and fall asleep in banks. Approximately one third of the fruit left.
Put the container with the berries in a saucepan with water, then on the stove (water bath).
When the fruits begin to settle, add more. To do this operation should be as long as the berries do not stop falling.
Banks should be twisted and left in the storeroom, cellar - in a word, where all preservation is stored for the winter.

It is useful to cook blueberries in their own juice with sugar:

Enumerate the berries, wash and dry.
Sprinkle the fruits in half-liter jars, add to each one and a half spoons of sugar.
Glass containers should be properly shrunk, closed and sterilized for twenty minutes.
Turn the jars up and leave to cool. They do not need to cover anything.

Berries can be stored at room temperature for up to two years.

Ways to save a lot of blueberries. It will not lose its beneficial qualities if you make juice, syrup, jam or pickle berries from fruits.

But it is best to use fresh blueberries, which have recently been completely removed from the bush.