Any berries that grow in your region are much healthier than imported ones. It's a pity that the berry season is quickly receding. You can extend it by freezing the berries for the winter. If you do it right, they will retain all the nutrients.
How to prepare berries for freezing
Modern freezers and refrigerators allow you to freeze berries for the winter while preserving their presentation, taste, and nutritional value. Frozen fruits retain much more minerals and vitamins than canned fruits.
You can freeze any berries, the freezing rules for all fruits are the same. The berries should be strong, unripe, and not damaged. It is not difficult to properly freeze berries for the winter. Remove the stalks first. Put the honeysuckle, currants, strawberries, chokeberry (chokeberry), blueberries in a colander and rinse thoroughly under running water. Raspberries, blackberries are delicate berries, they do not need to be washed. When the water is drained, spread the fruit on a napkin in one layer and let it dry.
Freezing berries for the winter
Put the dried berries in a shallow container or on a cutting board, again in one layer, cover with cling film and put in the freezer for several hours. You can store the fruit in a container or transfer it to plastic bags. Packages are more compact and take up less space. Dense berries: currants, gooseberries can be frozen immediately in bags. Please note that you cannot freeze thawed berries again, freeze the fruits in small portions.
How to freeze berries with sugar
You can make a dessert from overripe mint berries: sprinkle the fruits with sugar, beat them with a mixer, put them in silicone molds and refrigerate. This is a great filling for pies. You can save the berries for the winter in syrup. More often strawberries are frozen in this way. Prepare it, put it in dry plastic containers and fill it with chilled syrup (300 g sugar per liter of water).
Frozen berries should be stored separately from other foods. Delicate fruits absorb foreign odors well. The optimum freezing temperature is -18-23˚C, in such conditions the berry can be stored for 8-12 months.
