The aroma that comes from wild strawberry berries will not leave anyone indifferent. No wonder, in translation from Latin, its generic and specific name sounds like “fragrant edible”. Strawberries - the sweetest berry, which can be found in the summer forest, on the edges and clearings. Having once tasted bright red fruits, you will hardly forget their taste and aroma. There will be a great desire to save strawberries longer. True, this will have to try.
Storage Features of Fresh Strawberries
Fresh strawberry berries are more reasonable to store in the refrigerator. At room temperature, they will lose their flavor in a day or two, become lethargic and tasteless.
The refrigerator will help to preserve the berries for a longer period. Strawberries need to be spread out in a thin layer in a bowl with a wide bottom and covered with cling film.
The storage time in the refrigerator depends on the temperature. At six degrees with a plus sign, strawberries will remain tasty for up to four days. If you maintain the temperature lower - from 0 to +2, berries can be saved for about a week. When the humidity and temperature rise, soft fruits begin to rot, lose taste and aroma.
You can neither clean nor wash the strawberries, otherwise the whole juice will flow out. But to sort out the berries before storage, to remove the crumpled and damaged ones will not hurt.
Freezing strawberries
In the raw state can not be stored for long strawberries. It is not recommended to pour the berries from one dish to another. Therefore, if a lot of strawberries and it does not keep fresh, you need to do processing immediately. A proven method - freezing berries.
The freezer is great for preserving fruit for up to ten months. Harvested berries need to properly prepare:
- Carefully sort through.
- Wash so that no trace of earth or sand remains.
- To separate the stem.
- Spread out on paper napkins or towels so that the strawberries are well dried.
There are several ways to freeze. The first involves the use of whole berries:
- Pour the strawberries on a baking sheet, pan or board.
- To smooth the berries so that they are arranged in one layer and do not touch each other.
- Send the pan to the freezer (-18 degrees).
- A container with completely frozen strawberries to remove and scatter the berries in plastic bags.
- Send back to the freezer.
Strawberries cannot be kept on the baking sheet for more than a day, as it can freeze and lose both taste and goodness.
Pre-freezing in one layer ensures the safety of each berry and protects them from sticking together.
When the strawberries in the process of transportation choked, you can use another method of freezing, allowing you to prepare the berries for the winter and save them until the next harvest. It is necessary:
- Grind the fruits in a blender or grind through a sieve.
- Pour the strawberry puree into small disposable cups, ice cups or trays, cover them with cling film.
- Place the container filled with berries in the freezer.
- Leave for long-term storage, the temperature should not be lowered below -18 degrees.
You can add a little sugar in the mashed berries. Then in the freezer will not lie just a strawberry, and ice cream.
If you get a bottle or a glass of strawberry puree in a cold evening, warm it up a little and open it, the summer scent will instantly fill the whole room.
Dried strawberries
The strawberries have small berries, so it is easy to dry them in the oven. Fruits should be poured on a baking sheet and loaded into the oven, preheating it to 50 degrees.
It is not necessary to tear the sepals. The main thing is that the fruits do not have any garbage or rot.
To dry the strawberries will take 10-12 hours. The cooled fruits are perfectly stored in closed containers - glass or metal - for a year or even two. They can be mixed with tea and get a flavored berry drink.
“Live” strawberry jam
From the berries you can make the usual jam, jam or compote. But the strawberry perfectly preserved without heat treatment. “Live” jam is prepared as follows:
- Add one-for-one granulated sugar to clean and dried berries.
- Rub a strawberry with a wooden tolkushka or use a blender.
- Leave the mass for a couple of hours.
- Stir strawberries and packaged in sterile half-liter jars.
- Pour a centimeter layer of sugar on top.
- Close the container with a plastic cap and store in a cool place or in a refrigerator.
Strawberries are stored for at least a year. The aroma and healing qualities are fully preserved.
Strawberry fruits are very tender. They are stored in the refrigerator for long. Therefore, they should be eaten more fresh, and the fact that they could not be mastered was processed and stashed until winter.
