Blackberries, whether garden or wild, are tasty and healthy in any form. But if you can eat fresh blackberries only in August-September, canned food from it will allow you to indulge in this pleasure even in the winter-spring period. Freezing is one of the most preferable methods of preserving, allowing to fully preserve all the beneficial properties of blackberries.
Freezing as a way to preserve blackberries
Ripe fresh blackberries can be preserved for the winter in a variety of ways. Delicious compotes and assorted compotes, as well as preserves and jams are made from it. But all methods involving heat treatment do not allow to preserve in full all the beneficial properties of these berries, in particular, in preserves and jams after a long cooking, there are no longer any vitamins.
The only way that will allow you to preserve all the healing, beneficial and flavoring properties of a sufficiently tender blackberry is to freeze it. Moreover, quick freezing at an initially very low temperature will preserve the original appetizing appearance of the berries. If the functionality of your freezer and its volume allows you to implement this method of conservation, it must be done correctly, especially since it is not difficult to learn this.
How to properly freeze blackberries
It is impossible to wash the berries before freezing, but they must be very carefully sorted out and sorted. Only those berries that have retained their integrity, strength and elasticity will go into the freezer, even if they are a little unripe. Remove all the garbage collected with the berries - twigs, leaves, insects that also like blackberries can get caught.
Frozen blackberries should be stored for no more than a year, from harvest to harvest.
You can freeze it in two ways. According to the first method, the berries must be laid out in one layer on a large cutting board and placed in the freezer, setting the lowest possible temperature in it. Since blackberries are a medium-sized berry, at -18 ° C they will freeze in 1 hour. Place the frozen berries in a separate plastic bag and place them in the freezer compartment for storing fruits and vegetables. Place a new batch on a cutting board.
If you want to cook frozen blackberries, you do not need to defrost them before cooking.
For the second method, you will need twice as many plastic bags. Arrange the berries prepared for freezing in bags; no more than 1 cup of berries should be placed in the bag. Tie the bags, leaving air so that the berries do not crease. Then place each bag in another and tie it in the same way. Place the bags in the freezer in one layer. Once the berries are frozen, they can be poured into plastic containers with lids for easy storage.
