Blueberries are an extremely healthy berry. It has anti-anemic, vaso-strengthening, antibacterial properties. This explains its use for medicinal purposes with a large number of diseases. You can eat blueberries not only during the harvest season, but also by preparing such a valuable berry for the winter.
Dried blueberries
Drying is one of the ways to prepare blueberries for the winter at home. The collected fresh berries must be sorted out, removing leaves, twigs, spoiled berries and other debris.
Arrange the prepared berries in one layer on a tray, baking sheet or any other flat surface in one layer. If desired, you can put metal foil or parchment under the berries. Cover the top of the berries with gauze to protect them from flies and other insects.
Put the berries in the sun and leave there until completely dry. Turn the blueberries over from time to time to dry the berries evenly on all sides. Avoid moldy berries. At night, blueberries must be removed indoors.
Completely dried berries are hard, wrinkled, and when poured, they emit a characteristic rustling sound. Store them in a dark place in a linen bag or paper bag. You can use dried blueberries for making stewed fruit, jelly, baking.
Frozen blueberries
Rinse the sorted blueberries in running water and dry the berries well on a towel. Arrange them on a special tray in one layer so that there is a small space between the berries. Thus, you will avoid freezing of the fruit.
Place the tray of blueberries in the freezer to freeze for 1 hour. After that, remove the berries and transfer them to a plastic container. Store frozen blueberries in the freezer. Such berries are used for any culinary purpose.
Frozen blueberry puree
Grind the washed berries with a pusher or blender into a homogeneous puree. Add granulated sugar to taste if desired. Divide the puree into plastic containers and place in the freezer for freezing and storage. After defrosting, such mashed potatoes are used as an independent dish, a filling for pies, and a basis for preparing drinks.
Blueberry jam
Boil the syrup from 300 g of water and 1.5 kg of granulated sugar. Put 1 kg of picked and washed blueberries into the boiling syrup. Mix everything carefully and bring to a boil. Remove the dishes from the heat and leave the jam to cool completely. Then bring it to a boil again and cool. The foam that appears during cooking must be removed. Put the dish with the jam on the fire for the third time, add the juice of half a lemon to it. Bring the berry mass to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Then pour the jam into sterilized glass jars, close them with metal lids, turn them upside down, wrap them up and leave to cool completely. Store the jam in a dark, dry place.
Blueberries in their own juice
Pour the prepared blueberries into sterilized glass jars to the top and place them in a wide saucepan with cheesecloth on the bottom, folded several times. Pour cold water into a saucepan. It should reach the hangers of the cans. Put the pot on fire. When the water boils, reduce the heat so that the boil is not very strong and water does not get into the jars of blueberries. Gradually, the blueberries will begin to settle. As soon as this happens, the resulting space should be filled with berries taken in one of the jars. Continue cooking the blueberries in your own juice until the berries continue to settle, bringing the jars of berries to the top each time. After that, put granulated sugar in each jar at the rate of 1 tsp. on a half-liter jar. Cover the blueberries with sterilized metal lids, boil the berries for another 5 minutes, and roll up the jars. You can store them at room temperature.
