How to store blackberries

How to store blackberries

Blackberry - shrub with tasty and healthy berries. The fruits ripen in August-September and have a rich black or black and purple color. Externally, the blackberry resembles raspberries, although inferior to her in popularity. However, it does not hurt to stock up on berries, because they are not only tasty, but also contain many useful elements.

How to store fresh blackberry

Blackberry - tender and juicy berry. Fresh, it is stored in the refrigerator for up to four days. It can be longer, but then most of the berries will lose their shape, will be covered with mold or sour.

When preserving the fruit in the refrigerator should be noted that:

  • they should not be washed: the blackberry skin is easily damaged, juice begins to flow out of the berries;
  • you need to place the fruit in a tray or container in a single layer;
  • it is desirable to put a napkin at the bottom of the container: it will absorb excess moisture that covers the berries - this will help the fruit not to turn sour.

If you put blackberry packaging in that part of the refrigerator where the temperature does not rise above 0 ° C, the berry will be able to last for about a week in edible form.

When you want to feast on fresh blackberry even longer, you can wash it, free it from tails and beat it with sugar. In this form, the berry at zero temperature will last up to three weeks. Taste and vitamins will remain with her.

How to prepare blackberries for storage

Blackberries, plucked in its immature form, will remain so. Berries will not be able to reach after they were picked from the bush. Therefore, blackberry fruits need to be plucked only after their full ripening.

Harvest need:

  • Clear from twigs, leaves, insects, which can easily be on top or inside the berries.
  • Carefully inspect the fruit. Those berries that have begun to deteriorate or are too wrinkled should be discarded.
  • Rinse gently with running water. In order to preserve the fruits as much as possible, it is better to use a shower, rather than a regular jet of tap.
  • Transfer the blackberry to a colander and leave for a while to let the water flow.
  • Cut off tails from each berry. We can not allow the fruit burst. Damaged blackberries will have to eat within 24 hours.
  • Spread out on paper napkins and wait until the blackberry is completely dry.

Prepared fruits can either be frozen or completely dried. There are also many recipes to conserve blackberries.

Freezing Blackberries

Freezing is the best way to save blackberries. It helps to protect almost all the healing qualities of the berries and their excellent sweet taste.

Blackberries are frozen in one of two ways.

The first is fast freezing:

  • Blackberries should be spread out on a clean bowl (dish, tray, cutting board) in one layer.
  • Send the berries to the freezer in which the minimum temperature is set.
  • After an hour or one and a half, pour the blackberry into plastic containers or plastic bags.
  • Put them back in the freezer, where they leave for storage.

Fruits freeze well, they do not stick together. If necessary, you can easily pour the right amount of blackberry and thaw in a microwave or at room temperature. Accelerate the process of boiling water shower.

The second method involves loading the berries into the freezer immediately, without prior quick freezing. When using it should:

  • Spread the blackberry into small sachets. Here you need to consider that you will have to defrost all packaging at once. Therefore, the size of the bags should be small: approximately such that the number of berries placed in it is used at a time.
  • Send the prepared fruit container to the freezer for a day. Packages and containers should not be closed.
  • After a day, check the state of the blackberry. You can take out a few berries and make sure that they are well frozen.
  • The container should be closed and its contents shaken slightly.

Blackberries are successfully stored in the freezer for at least a year. During this time, the berries remain quite suitable. You can leave them next year, but it is better to make harvesting from a fresh crop.

Blackberry Drying

Blackberries, completely dried, can be stored for up to two years. For this period to remain healthy and tasty, you need:

  • Use only ripe berries.
  • Before drying, dry up the blackberry in the sun for two or three days. For the process to be effective, the fruit should be placed on a flat surface in a single layer.
  • Cover the blackberry with gauze to protect it from flies and other insects.
  • After two or three days, pour the berries onto flat pans and dry them in the oven. The temperature should first be set at 70 ° C, and an hour or two before the process is completed - 45-50 ° C. The oven door should be ajar.

The blackberry will be ready in four to five hours from the start of drying. Store it in a sealed container in a dark and dry place.

How to store blackberries rubbed with sugar

This method involves the absence of heat treatment of berries. This means that the blackberry, mashed with sugar, will retain all the vitamins and beneficial trace elements that nature has endowed it with.

For processing suitable berries are not only ripe and kept perfect shape, but overripe and slightly crumpled. The main thing is that they do not have mold.

  • Berries should be washed and dried on a paper towel or napkins. It is desirable that the moisture on them remained as little as possible.
  • The blackberry should be placed in a deep container and covered with sugar. The standard ratio of ingredients is one to one. But sugar can be taken a half times more.
  • Ingredients must be mixed and mashed with wooden pulp. You can skip the berries through a meat grinder.
  • Leave the rubbed mixture for twelve hours in a cool place. During this time, she insists, berries and sugar are connected to each other.
  • Stir the blackberry one more time and pack it into clean half-liter jars.
  • Close with metal or plastic covers.

Stored blackberry rubbed with sugar in the refrigerator or in a cool basement. The term is a year or a bit longer.

Properly processed blackberries will retain their useful qualities until the new harvest, helping the person to strengthen the immune system and stay healthy.

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