How to store lingonberries for the winter at home: collection dates, technologies and recipes for blanks

Table Of Contents

When to pick berries
What if the fruits are not ripe: how to ripen at home
Preparing the crop for long-term storage
Where and how is the harvest most often stored
Methods and technology of harvesting cranberries for the winter
Shelf life of fresh berries and winter preparations

Cowberry is valued for its beneficial qualities. Ripe dark red berries contain many vitamins, which are used all winter if the fruit crop is properly stored. Each housewife has her own secrets of harvesting lingonberries. But you also need to know how to store lingonberries so that the benefits remain in the product until the next harvest.

When to pick berries

Red cranberries begin to appear on undersized bushes in August - September. But even in October, you can find clearings with ripe berries in the forest. It is necessary to collect forest fruits that have a red or rich pink color.The brown berries are already overripe and tasteless. It is not advised to collect lingonberries after the onset of frost. The value of the berry is declining, and it will not be possible to store it whole.

Sometimes they pull out the whole berry, still whitish, unripe, in order to have time to prepare it. But in this case, you will have to work hard, bring the crop to maturity.

What if the fruits are not ripe: how to ripen at home

Unripe lingonberries contain a lot of acid, bitter. With the acquisition of ripeness, taste deficiencies are reduced, and the berry is quite suitable for fresh consumption. In order for it to ripen, you need to know what fruits to take from the bushes. The whitish fruits of the plant are always harvested, hoping that they will ripen at home. But more often than not, they don't. Only the fruits that begin to turn pink turn red after 4-5 days.

It is necessary to collect berries in sunny weather. If you got caught in the rain during the campaign for the harvest, you will have to dry the fruits. When storing wet lingonberries, they will become moldy.

Preparing the crop for long-term storage

The collected berries must be prepared for storage so that the work is not in vain. To do this, a number of activities are carried out related to:

cleansing fruits from dirt and dust;
rejection of rotten, damaged specimens;
rinsing under running water.

It is necessary to carry out procedures. After all, lingonberries are not always harvested in ecologically clean places.

Rinsing with water

A large number of harvested fruits are difficult to wash off the dust. It is advised to use a large sieve, in which the berries are placed and poured over with water. Dirty liquid drains and clean fruits remain on the surface.

You can put lingonberries in the bath and fill with water, then drain it. But with this method, part of the crop leaves with the liquid.

Rinse better with boiled water cooled to room temperature.

Cleaning

Clearing of debris, leaves and twigs occurs in different ways:

Sift lingonberries in the wind, pouring it from one container to another. At the same time, they raise the container with the harvest to a height of 1-1.5 meters.
The jet of a fan or a vacuum cleaner blows out the garbage. In this case, the berry is scattered on an inclined surface.
The long chute is installed obliquely. The berries are rolled over it, and the vacuum cleaner draws in light debris. The clean crop rolls into the basin where the end of the chute rests.

Select the cleaning method according to the amount of harvest. A small amount of berries can also be peeled by hand.

Where and how is the harvest most often stored

It's easy to pick forest fruits. Sometimes it's harder to keep them. There are many ways to do this. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is better to keep the berries fresh, but you can freeze them, preserve them with sugar, in your own juice.

In room conditions

If the crop of lingonberries is small, then it can be stored in the apartment. He will not have time to deteriorate, as he will be eaten. When fresh, the fruits do not remain ready for use for long, for 2-3 months.

It is better to place the berries in a glass jar or a paper bag at home. For the harvest, a room with a temperature within 15 degrees is suitable. Without freezing, lingonberries are used to make fruit drinks, compote.

In a private house, utility rooms can be used for storage, in apartments, places where it is cool and low humidity.

In the basement or cellar

Cellar conditions are the most suitable for preserving the harvest. In it, the temperature is at the level of +2 degrees. With it, the processes of decay are suspended, and lingonberries will remain in excellent condition for a long time.

During the winter, they look through the harvest of berries so that it does not deteriorate. Damaged fruits are removed so that they do not ruin the entire crop.

Freezer or refrigerator

Frozen lingonberries are good to eat, as they retain their beneficial properties. To prepare, scatter the berries on a baking sheet and put in the freezer. After a week, you can place the fruits in plastic bags and leave on the freezer shelf.

If lingonberries can be stored in the chamber for a long time, then in the refrigerator - 1-2 months.

Methods and technology of harvesting cranberries for the winter

Cowberry blanks for the winter are different. They do not differ from canning other berries. But a distinctive feature of the product is that it does not deteriorate for a long time. It contains a lot of acid, which prevents the fruits from turning sour, and the dense skin protects against damage.Therefore, it is possible to save lingonberries without sugar. And its conservation does not seem to be a laborious process.

Drying fruit

Cowberries should be dried after harvesting, carefully sorted and washed. Berries are poured in a thin layer on a baking sheet and put in the oven. It is necessary to keep the product at a temperature of 60 degrees. Leave the door slightly ajar and make sure that the fruits are completely dry.

Suitable for drying and a special chamber used according to the instructions.

Storage of pickled cranberries

The most popular way to preserve lingonberries is urinating. The sorted and washed berries are poured into bottles, jars, sterilized in advance. It remains to pour the fruits with boiled water. In this way, you can store a delicious product for a long time.

Housewives add sugar and spices to the water. This makes a delicious dessert that is kept sealed in the cellar.

Steamed berries

They keep lingonberries steamed in the oven in the cellars. For cooking, the washed fruits are poured into a saucepan and put in the oven. Keep it in a heated oven for 2-3 hours. Then they are laid out in jars, closed with a lid. Steamed mass is used for making pies, fruit drinks, jelly.

Cowberry in own juice

It is best to cook the fruits in their own juice in a wooden barrel. After washing them, put them in a small layer and tamp, sprinkled with sugar. Then continue to pour the next layer and so on until the end. Finish laying with a layer of berries and clog the container with a tight lid. Under the influence of sugar, lingonberry juice will be produced. For quick preparation, leave the product in the warmth of the day for 2. Then put it in the cold.

Make jelly

This preparation is prepared from berries and sugar, taken in the same amount.After pouring lingonberries into a pan with a thick day, they press down so that juice appears. Then put on fire for 10 minutes. After that, rub the mass through a sieve, squeeze. Juice is mixed with sugar. Cook over low heat without letting it boil. The workpiece will turn out to be jelly-like when the volume is boiled down to 2/3 of the original. Berry dessert is used to decorate pies, cakes, pastries.

Canning with sugar

Cowberry jam is prepared for the winter. It is prepared like this: fruits are poured into sugar syrup and boiled over low heat. You can add apples to the syrup.

The jam is laid out in well-sterilized jars. Store the workpiece in a cool place under the lids.

Delicious fruit jam, jam. Sugar for blanks is taken 2 times more than fruits. It is necessary to boil the product so that it is thick. Store jam in the refrigerator under nylon lids. Jam is prepared in the same way. Such blanks are useful and do not deteriorate for a long time.

Shelf life of fresh berries and winter preparations

Not every year nature pleases with lingonberries. Therefore, sometimes you have to feast on blanks for more than one year. Fresh berries cannot be stored even for six months, so you need to cook berries in different ways to enjoy vitamin jelly or jam in winter, spring.

Such products can be consumed 2-3 years from the date of preparation. But they keep better in the refrigerator and cellar.