Is it possible to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter and how to do it?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Sea buckthorn is a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. This is one of the most useful berries among those growing in our country. It is rightfully called the "miracle berry" due to its healing properties, which were known to the ancient Greeks, who prepared potions based on sea buckthorn for warriors and war horses. Not everyone knows that not only the berries of this plant are healing, but also the leaves, and even the bark. Sea buckthorn berries are perishable products, so questions about how to save this vitamin treasure for a long winter period and whether it is possible to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter are relevant.

Sea buckthorn: a little about the benefits

Sea buckthorn is rich in such vitamins: B1, B3, B6, C, H, PP. Due to the huge content of vitamin C, it is used to prevent colds. But this is not all of its virtues. The berry contains many valuable trace elements such as iron, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, calcium, flavonoids, keratinoids, and in addition, glucose, folic, tartaric, malic and citric acids. These berries contain tannins and proteins, as well as monounsaturated fatty acids (omega-3).

Sea buckthorn helps with many ailments. She isIt is used in cardiovascular diseases due to the ability to strengthen the walls of blood vessels. Its berries have antioxidant properties, help accelerate skin regeneration and wound healing. Therefore, they are used as a remedy for burns of varying degrees, as well as to remove age spots and other damage and skin changes.

Regular intake of sea buckthorn berries will provide anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects in the treatment of acute respiratory viral infections. Mixed with honey, it will cure coughs.

Contraindications

Sea buckthorn, like any berries, has a high content of fruit acids. In this connection, caution with it should be shown to everyone who has increased acidity of gastric juice and diseases such as gastritis and stomach ulcers, cholecystitis, pancreatitis or urolithiasis. In addition, fresh sea buckthorn berries have a laxative effect.

How to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter?

Gardeners who grow these solar trees know that for all their value, they are easy to grow. But it is not enough to grow berries, you should still properly preserve them. Compote and jam are, of course, good, but heat treatment reduces the usefulness to almost zero. Is it possible to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter? After all, it is known that when frozen, a greater amount of useful substances is preserved. This is a responsible matter, especially when it comes to such a useful product as sea buckthorn berries. It is necessary to approach this process thoroughly - the result directly depends on this.

First, you should carefully sort out the crop. Spoiled or unripe berries are completely unsuitable for freezing. In addition, it is necessary to remove excess garbage.

After all ripe fruits are selected, they should be washed. To do this, you need to pour water into a deep container and pour berries into it. Then wash them gently. It is better to change the water several times during the process.

The next step is drying. Freezing does not require extra moisture. Washed berries should be laid out on paper towels and allowed to dry. This will take about 30-40 minutes.

Next, it is desirable to shock freeze the product at -20 Co. To do this, the berries need to be laid out in a thin layer on flat plates or pallets lined with parchment paper and placed in the freezer for a couple of hours.

Important: freezing berries at a low enough temperature of about -10-12 Co will not give the desired result and will lead to damage to raw materials.

Frozen berries can be separated into separate bags or plastic containers for long-term storage. Keep containers separate from frozen meat and fish.

Store sea buckthorn in the freezer for no more than 9 months.

Sweet sea buckthorn from the freezer

Is it possible to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter with sugar? Of course you can. This option is suitable for everyone who likes it sweeter, especially since this berry is quite tart and slightly sour.

For freezing berries with sugar, all preparatory procedures(sorting, washing, drying) should be carried out as in conventional freezing. Sugar should be added after blast freezing. Thus, the sugar will be distributed evenly, and the berries will not lose their shape and will look like fresh ones. You can dose sweetness to taste, but you should not overdo it so as not to turn the benefit into harm. It is enough to add half of the sugar to the part of the berries.

Sea buckthorn pureed with sugar

Is it possible to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter in another way? There is an option - to prepare frozen berries, after grinding them to a puree state. This method is suitable for those who are not enthusiastic about the bones. In addition, freezing mashed potatoes will save a lot of space in the freezer due to its compact size.

The recipe for such a miraculous puree is simple. Selected washed and dried berries are pureed with a blender with added sugar. The latter is added depending on taste preferences. The usual proportions of sugar and berries are 1:1. Ready sweet fragrant puree is laid out in shallow plastic containers and placed in the freezer.

Frozen sea buckthorn jam

Frozen berries are good for jam. The process of preparing this winter delicacy differs only in that you have to defrost the sea buckthorn beforehand.

For jam you will need: 1 kg of berries, 1.5 kg of sugar and about 1 liter of water. Berries should be thawed and squeezed. Make syrup from sugar and water. Put berries in itlet it brew for 4 hours. After that, bring to a boil and simmer for no more than 10 minutes until the syrup becomes clear. Pour the finished and slightly chilled jam into the prepared container.

Jam from sea buckthorn frozen for the winter turns out exactly the same as from fresh berries, both in taste and useful properties.

Benefits of frozen berries

If you freeze sea buckthorn for the winter, is it possible to make the usual sweet pies, other pastries and other culinary delights from such a berry?

To get a shock dose of vitamins and get rid of winter depression, just get a small portion of frozen berries and let them thaw a little. After that, you can eat. If the sea buckthorn is frozen without sugar, it is not too late to add it at this stage.

Of course, frozen berries are also suitable for cooking all kinds of dishes and desserts. Berries do not lose their beneficial properties after freezing.

Having figured out how to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter, you don't have to worry about preserving the beneficial properties of this Russian superfood. You can freeze sea buckthorn for the winter both for tea and for making sweet pastries, jam, delicious berry puree. It is useful to eat frozen berries by adding them to morning porridge or yogurt.