Blueberries have always been forest. But in the last 20 years, more and more lovers of garden blueberries have appeared. This fashion came to us from the USA. Blueberries come from the territory of this country. We will borrow from them the preparation of healthy dishes with this berry. Let's start with recommendations for the storage and selection of blueberries.

When buying blueberries, remember that they will not continue to ripen after being picked. Therefore, you need to buy only fully ripe berries. For the future, these berries are harvested in different ways: canned, dried, mashed and frozen.

When buying, choose berries that are completely blue, without shades of red. Do not take soft, watery, moldy. If there is moisture or juice in the container with berries, the berries have outlived their useful life.

Store blueberries unwashed, frozen, by covering the container with clean paper or cling film. Fresh berries without damage can be stored this way for up to two weeks. But it is better to use blueberries immediately after picking or buying.

Blueberries freeze well. Don't wash them before freezing as the water makes the skin tough. Pour over with water before serving, removing the berries from the freezer.

To freeze blueberries for future use, place the berries in a tightly sealed container, leaving about 3 cm of free space to the top. You can put the berries in a syrup that is made with 4 cups of water and 3 cups of sugar. Pour berries into a container. Close it and freeze.

Berries are easily preserved and dried.

When added to other foods in some recipes, blueberries can change the color of the food. When adding blueberries to a recipe, be aware that recipes that include baking soda can develop an ugly brownish-green hue due to a chemical reaction.

Baking soda is commonly included in recipes that use an acidic ingredient such as buttermilk or yogurt. Try replacing regular milk with buttermilk and baking powder for baking soda to avoid discoloration.

When using frozen whole blueberries in a recipe, do not let them thaw before adding. This will preserve not only the structure, but will also prevent the berries from secreting juice and discoloring the final product.

In most cases, blueberries can be substituted for other berries. These are blueberries, red currants, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.

Blueberries and health

Blueberries have been used in Russia in folk medicine for a long time in the treatment of stomach problems. The indigenous people of America used the leaves as a tea to improve the composition of the blood, and the juice - to get rid of coughs. During World War II, British Royal Air Force pilots ate blueberries and blueberries to improve night vision.

Material prepared:

Executive Director of the Association of Gardeners of Russia (APPYAPM), Ph.D. Sci., Leading Specialist of APPYaPM on berry crops

Specialist of APSYAP

Using material Mariusz Podymniak

Storage of blueberries in a modified atmosphere

Blueberry variety Toro

Blueberries are a rare crop in the fresh fruit market. It is possible to extend the period of delivery to its consumer using various methods of fruit storage - conditions of low temperature and a controlled atmosphere.

To extend the shelf life of blueberries, you can put the berries in the refrigerator - this is not only desirable, but even necessary if you want to export the fruits, especially to distant markets. Rapid cooling allows you to extend not only the post-harvest period of storage of fruits, but also to preserve their nutritional value. The technology currently available is the storage of fruits in a modified atmosphere, which makes it possible to increase sales markets, extend the sale of berries by season, and stimulate the expansion of blueberry production. In a modified atmosphere package, the standard composition of atmospheric air is replaced by a combination of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen in proportions different from natural atmospheric ones.

Modified atmosphere packages

The easiest way, which does not require investments in organizing additional infrastructure to change the composition of the cooling atmosphere, is to use Xtend packages, usually manufactured in Israel by StePac and sold in Poland by PHU Puch. These bags maintain the necessary balance between oxygen (O 2) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) in the absence of excess moisture (condensate), selective permeability for oxygen is provided. As a result, the process of breathing fruits inside a closed container gradually slows down - the amount of oxygen decreases and the volume of carbon dioxide increases.

Fig.1 Modified atmosphere storage bags
blueberries for 4 weeks

In order to store fruits for several weeks, it is important to determine the optimal time for picking fruits. Overripe or unripe fruits are not laid for long-term storage. You can not lay the fruits harvested after the rain, they quickly lose water and are prone to fungal diseases. As a rule, blueberries are harvested in small boxes, which are placed in Xtend bags (Fig. 1). In open bags, blueberries should be brought to the refrigerator and cooled to the required temperature. Only then can the packages be sealed. There should be no temperature fluctuations in the chamber. The optimum storage temperature for blueberries is 1-2 °C.

Variety Chanticleer

During the storage period, every few days it is necessary to visually inspect the fruits and determine whether they are affected by pathogens, whether the berries lose turgor. To do this, periodically open one package to check the actual condition of the berries in boxes (or containers). The opened package is removed from the refrigerator. Practice has shown that under such conditions blueberries can be stored for four weeks or more.

Pallet storage system for blueberries

Another method for long-term storage of fruits under controlled atmosphere conditions is the creation of a modified atmosphere throughout the entire volume of the chamber. This, of course, requires new equipment - CO 2 and nitrogen generators. With sharp fluctuations in the composition of the gaseous medium in the refrigerating chamber - this happens during its opening, it is necessary to quickly sell all the fruits stored in it. This problem does not arise if fruits are stored in refrigerators in specially packed blocks, with an individual gas environment support system in each block (Fig. 2). Such a storage system in Poland is offered by companies: Atmo (specialization - compressors), Termopol Ice (air conditioners) and PHU Puch (refrigeration equipment). This modern optimal storage option lies in the fact that CO 2 and nitrogen are supplied individually to each block of bags. These gases can be supplied from cylinders or by nitrogen (N) and carbon dioxide generators adjusted by a gas scrubber (CO 2 scrubber). It is now common practice to supply nitrogen not by nitrogen and carbon dioxide generators, but by gas cylinders.

The Adjustable Scrubber is a state of the art device called IS that communicates in real time with the ISOSOFT automatic control system. The central system controls the scrubber, which regulates the composition of the gas environment in different blocks or storage chambers.

Rice. 2. In each block of packed berries (there may be several of them on one pallet), a modified gas environment is individually maintained

In addition to regulating the gas composition, a stable low temperature is also maintained during storage. Using an O 2 and CO 2 analyzer, the gas composition can be constantly monitored individually in each unit in order to change it if necessary. The experience of storing berries in Poland shows that the optimal gas environment for blueberries is 10-12% CO 2 and 10% O 2 . Under these conditions, blueberries can be stored for four weeks or more.

After removing the fruits from storage, before they go on sale, they need to be sorted and put into a new package in order to remove berries with symptoms of disease or lost turgor.

The progressive storage system is also used for long-term transportation of fruits, which facilitates the delivery of fruits by land and sea transport - costs are significantly reduced compared to air transport. This mode ensures the preservation of taste and natural presentation of the fruit, increasing the shelf life. This is an additional opportunity to increase the sales market and stimulate the expansion of the production of valuable vitamin products, including blueberries.

Blueberry is a cold-resistant evergreen shrub from the Heather family. Its close relatives are blueberries, lingonberries and cranberries. The plant has very useful sweetish dark purple berries. Now you will learn how to store them.

Why keep blueberries? Why is she so useful?

It is hard to believe, but the fruits of this shrub are not inferior to the berries of many tropical plants in terms of the amount of nutrients. Blueberries are especially rich in vitamin C (ascorbic acid), an antioxidant that protects the body from destructive oxidative processes.

Also, blueberry fruits fit perfectly into any diet, because they do not cause increased secretion of gastric juice, do not provoke the appearance of appetite.

When to collect? How to choose the most suitable for storage?

Only a fully ripe berry is suitable for storage - bluish-black, soft to the touch, with a whitish wax coating on the skin. You need to collect it a maximum of 2-3 days before storage.

Of course, it is possible to harvest not fully ripe fruits, but they will lose their pleasant taste and most of the useful properties very quickly.

When buying blueberries, you need to check:

• whether there is any damage on it;
• Is there mold?
• Is it large in size?

Also, the fruits should not be wet.

Short (short) storage

At normal room temperature, blueberries will not live long: two or three days - and they will completely rot. But she can slightly extend her life in the upper (not freezing) compartments of the refrigerator. If the berries are washed, dried, peeled and carefully put in glass jars in equal layers, they will be edible for about a week and a half. To be honest, not very long. Fortunately, there are many ways to keep fruit for much longer.

The main methods of storage for the winter

It is best to harvest blueberries for a long time using:

• frosts;
• urination (in ordinary water);
• sugaring;
• making jam from it;
• drying (in the oven).

Freezing

Freezing in the freezer is the easiest way to protect blueberries from rotting for a long time.

• We sort it.
• We get rid of all the stalks.
• Rinse thoroughly in running water.
• We give a little time to dry (if you freeze wet fruits, their skin will become very tough, the taste will deteriorate sharply).
• We put it in even equal layers in a small airtight container, do not fill it to the top, leave 2-3 cm of free space.
• Add some sugar between each layer.
• Close the container tightly and place in the freezer.

Most likely, blueberries will not lose their beneficial properties in the freezer for several years, but it is still better to consume them within the first year after freezing.

Water soak

Soaking is another interesting way to harvest berries. Thanks to him, blueberries will remain fresh and healthy for the body for many months:

• Pour the peeled and washed berries into jars (ordinary glass).
• Top with boiled water. The water must be cold.
• Boil the soaked blueberries. Boiling time is approximately 10 minutes if half a liter is used. Liters are boiled for 20 minutes.
• Close the jars tightly (roll up).
• We put them upside down (this is done in order to disinfect the lids, make them pasteurized).

Store soaked fruits in a dry and cool place. The cellar or upper compartments of the refrigerator are fine.

How to store with candied

Candied blueberries are also stored for quite a long time - about a year:

• We knead the fruits or send them to a meat grinder.
• Add sugar to the resulting paste-like homogeneous mass - put a pound of sugar per kilogram of blueberry mass.
• We heat this mixture, at the same time we also heat the jars.
• We lay out the blueberries in jars and begin to pasteurize them. We keep half-liters in boiling water for 20 minutes, liters - half an hour.

You need to store candied blueberries in the same place as soaked blueberries - in the cellar or refrigerator. In such places, it will begin to deteriorate no earlier than a year later.

Store as jam

Blueberry jam is very tasty and healthy. And it does not spoil for a very long time. Making jam is quite easy:

• Carefully sort the berries, clean and wash.
• We make sugar syrup: we take a kilogram of sugar per liter of water.
• We put the fruits in syrup, put them on the stove and start making jam.
• The fire must be slow. We cook for at least 3 hours (preferably 4).
• We spread the jam on the banks.
• We sterilize the jars by boiling (20-25 minutes).

Blueberry jam will be edible for two whole years.

Blueberries are best consumed fresh, but since this berry does not tolerate long storage, you have to think about how to save it for the winter. Blueberries are used to make jam, make pasta and make homemade wine. But these preservation methods are not able to preserve most of the vitamins. Freezing can do the trick.

Blueberry is a shrub with a height of 30 - 50 centimeters. Some varieties can reach 1 meter in height.

The fruits of this plant are quite large, juicy, dark blue in color with a bluish bloom. The berries are large, up to 1.3 centimeters in diameter.

Blueberries are very helpful. It is indicated for people with diseases of the cardiovascular system and digestive tract. The constant use of these fruits helps to relieve tension in the eye muscles and restore vision.

Watch the video from the channel "Chan Kazan" - Very useful Blueberry berry

The difference between blueberries and blueberries

Comparing these two berries, it will not be difficult to find differences between them. So:

• on a blueberry bush, the stem becomes woody almost to the very top;
• the blueberry bush has light stems;
• the receptacle of blueberries is even, while the line of blueberries is not even, broken.
• the taste of blueberries is brighter, more pronounced;
• the juice secreted by blueberries is light, while those of blueberries are dark purple with a red tint.
• blueberry juice is very poorly washed off, and blueberries do not stain hands;
• the flesh of blueberries is pink-red, blueberries have a greenish tint.

How to freeze blueberries for the winter

Preliminary preparation

Blueberries should be harvested in dry, sunny weather. Since the berry is very vulnerable, the collection must be carried out carefully so as not to deform the fruit.

If you bought blueberries in the market or in a store, then rinse them with water before freezing. It is best to do this in a large container, and not expose the berry to the pressure of water from a tap.

Dry blueberries on waffle or paper towels. The key to high-quality freezing is an absolutely dry product.

Whole berries

Berries are laid out in containers or trays with a layer of no more than 2 centimeters. In this form, blueberries are sent to the freezer. It is advisable to set the “Super frost” mode on the freezer a couple of hours before. After 4 - 6 hours, blueberries can be taken out and poured into a common bag or container. Freezing in this way allows you to freeze the berries in bulk.

Blueberries with sugar

Berries are laid out in containers and sprinkled alternately with granulated sugar. The amount of sugar is taken according to one's own taste, but experienced chefs advise using 3-4 tablespoons per pound of blueberries.

Blueberry puree for the winter

Pureed blueberries are a great option for freezing. If you like to feel the structure of berries in a dish, then you can chop blueberries with an ordinary wooden crush. If you want to see a more homogeneous mass, then a blender can come to the rescue. It is recommended to add sugar to such a preparation. Its amount depends on your taste preferences, but you should not add too much sand. For 1 kilogram, 200 - 250 grams will be enough.

Tanya Nikonova in her video will tell you how to make natural blueberry or blueberry juice in a blender

Shelf life of blueberries in the freezer

Blueberries tolerate freezing very well, so the berries do not lose their taste and useful properties throughout the whole year in the freezer.

The optimum storage temperature for blueberries is -16…-18ºС and below.

In order not to confuse blueberries with blueberries or, for example, grated black currants, the workpiece must be marked. On the tag, you can indicate the type of berries, the method of freezing and the date of laying in the chamber.

In many swamps, you can find a berry similar to blueberries, but this is blueberries. This berry is valued for its huge content of various vitamins that a person needs. However, the period of flowering and fruiting is not as long as we would like.

Therefore, in order to enjoy the taste of the berry throughout the year, you need to know how to properly preserve it. Here it is necessary to take into account the fact that with the wrong harvesting process, the berries can lose all the vitamins.

How to collect

An important factor for the safety of blueberries is a competent collection. There is no need for special equipment and containers. However, you can not collect the berry in a container that is too large, as this spoils the appearance and the juice begins to stand out. They should be blue in color, dense and without extraneous inclusions. Experts recommend picking berries in a rigid container. Any storage methods for blueberries should be carried out according to a well-established plan. The whole berry must be sorted out, leaves and debris removed. It should also be rinsed with running water. It is best to start processing on the day of collection in order to preserve the maximum of useful substances.

How to store blueberries Drying

Clean and sorted berries are spread on a prepared surface, and sent to the oven or a special oven, dryer. Here the berry is dried at a temperature of about 70% and at the same time greatly reduced in size. You should stir the blueberries several times throughout the entire time for even drying. After it has completely dried, do not immediately pull it out of the oven. It is necessary to open the door and let the berry stand for a while. Then it is poured into a storage container: a jar with an airtight lid or a canvas bag. The basic rule for storing dried blueberries is a dark and dry place. After all, the sun destroys vitamins, and moisture will lead all your efforts to zero. The whole process takes about 6 hours at a temperature of 40 degrees. It should be ensured that the door is slightly ajar so that the moisture from the berries evaporates freely.

How to store blueberries dried berry

Dried berries are popular. And although this method of storage is not so often used with soft berries, it is quite in demand. Prepared blueberries are covered with sugar and left for a while so that it is saturated with it and releases juice. Next, the juice should be drained and the berries laid out on parchment paper, where it should dry a little. It is placed in an oven at a low temperature and dried. The berries should become soft, but not spread or stick to your hands. After the end of the process, everything is put in containers and placed in a cold place. It should be remembered that it must be stored in a dark place in an airtight container.

How to store blueberries Frozen blueberries

In order to freeze blueberries, you need to have a good refrigerator or freezer. Dry prepared berries are laid out on a baking sheet so that the berries do not touch each other. Otherwise, they run the risk of sticking together in one lump. After they are completely frozen, they are placed in bags or containers with a lid. In order not to take up much space, it is worth using space rationally. You can put containers one on top of the other, and place packages in between. Experienced people who constantly harvest a variety of berries using freezing advise storing blueberries in portions. This will save more vitamins, as they disappear during numerous defrosting processes.

How to store blueberries With the use of granulated sugar

The easiest way to make a sweet preparation is to sprinkle blueberries with sugar. To do this, immediately put the berries in a storage container and sprinkle them with sand. At the same time, they should be put in the freezer immediately, without waiting for the juice to stand out.

How to store blueberries Puree

Blueberry puree is rich in vitamins and can be stored in the freezer or in sealed jars. The berries are simply ground and mashed. Place in a container with sugar. We mix. These blanks should be carefully monitored, as mold may appear on the surface of the puree. Most often this happens due to violations of the harvesting stages and non-compliance with the rules.

How to store blueberries Other delicious cooked preparations

Today, every housewife knows a huge variety of recipes that use blueberries. Preserves, jams, marmalades, compotes and marshmallows are especially popular. However, it is worth remembering that during heat treatment, some of the nutrients disappear. Therefore, these storage methods can be used, but other methods should not be forgotten.

• Blueberries in their own juice are made from berries and puree. To do this, for one kilogram of berries, you need to take half a kilogram of sugar. At the beginning of the process, the entire volume of berries is divided into two parts, one of which is passed through a meat grinder to obtain puree. Sugar is added to it and put on a small fire. Gradually add whole berries and bring to a boil. At a temperature of 90 degrees, the mixture is boiled for five minutes and immediately placed in jars and rolled up with lids. Before rolling up, experts recommend sterilizing jars in water for 20 minutes.
• The jam is very easy to make. A little more than a kilogram of sand is lowered into a liter of water, and boiled until a thick syrup is created. Next, prepared blueberries are lowered into the syrup and boiled until tender.
• To prepare compote, blueberries are placed in jars up to the shoulders and poured with boiling water. It is necessary to let it brew and drain the boiling water. Sugar is added to boiling water and after its dissolution, jars with berries are poured with syrup. Everything should be rolled up right away.
• Pastila is a favorite delicacy and is prepared quite simply. The most important thing here is to observe the temperature regime and make sure that it does not burn. The berries are ground and filtered through gauze. The resulting juice is mixed with sugar and boiled until thick. Next, the entire mass is placed in a special tray, and left to cool. Cover the surface with powdered sugar or granulated sugar. Close the container and put it in a cold place for storage.