It only lasts from July to August, the joy of crisp, fresh gooseberries. If you find it too time-consuming to preserve the fruit, you can keep it in the freezer. The following lines will tell you what to look out for when freezing.

Careful preparation

So that the frozen fruits really taste good after thawing, they undergo careful preparation after harvesting. Here's how to do it:

  • wash the picked gooseberries in lukewarm or cold water
  • use scissors to cut off the fruit stalks and withered remains of flowers
  • Alternatively, clip off with your fingernails
  • If you pierce them with a small needle, the berries are less likely to burst later

The admittedly time-consuming cleaning of gooseberries is indispensable. Neither the stems nor the remains of the flowers dissolve during baking or preserving. These fruit components would significantly affect the enjoyment and are always removed for quality reasons.

Pre-freezing is worthwhile

A major drawback to frozen berries is that they stick together into a tight ball in the freezer. A portion-by-portion removal is therefore impossible. Knowledgeable housewives therefore pre-freeze gooseberries. For this purpose, the fresh fruits are spread out on a plate or tray so that they do not touch. They are then transferred to space-saving freezer bags or cans and frozen for good.

Clever freezing for delicious snacks

The extremely healthy gooseberries turn into a tempting snack in the freezer, which even fruit-resistant children like to eat. Use fully ripe berries for this because they are no longer so acidic. Immediately after harvest, take action as follows:

  • Roll the cleaned and washed gooseberries in sugar
  • individually in the compartments of an ice cube tray
  • fill each compartment with water
  • after the ice cube trays are frozen, they can be easily stacked

Depending on your mood, the frozen fruits can be removed individually and nibbled after thawing or thawing.

Keeps only a few days in the fridge

Once frozen, gooseberries can be kept for up to 12 months. This form of preservation ensures seamless care for the family until the next harvest. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the refrigerator. Here the delicious berries stay fresh for a maximum of 1-2 weeks. The riper they are when stored in the fruit compartment, the more the period is reduced.

In this case, the freshly harvested gooseberries should only be cleaned and washed shortly before consumption or preparation. In the process of removing the fruit stalk and the remains of the flower, the skin is inevitably damaged, which also affects the shelf life in the refrigerator.

tips and tricks

Canned gooseberries are too soft to be eaten individually after being treated with boiling water. The fruits make up for this fact by turning into a delicious smoothie in the blender together with bananas. A sweet version with which you can also convince your children of the small vitamin bombs.

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The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

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Vegetable garden