- Freeze Gooseberries
- Preserving gooseberries
- Canning gooseberries
- Juicing gooseberries
- Drying Gooseberries
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After a rich gooseberry harvest, the question arises as to what happens to the excess berries. Tips for freezing, preserving & Co. can be found here.
Gooseberries (Ribes uva-crispa) are very he althy due to their high vitamin and mineral content and are best eaten fresh. Unfortunately, the berries can only be kept in the refrigerator for about ten days. If you want to have something from your harvest for longer, you should process or preserve the berries as soon as possible. In addition to fresh consumption, the berries are perfect for cakes, compotes and other desserts, as well as for making jam and making juice. We have summarized the most important methods for preserving gooseberries for you.
Freeze Gooseberries
There are many ways to freeze gooseberries. Whole or pureed, with or without sugar - the method depends primarily on the intended use. If you want to freeze whole fruit for a cake, there is a risk of bursting due to the high water content. It is therefore advisable to harvest the berries shortly before they are ripe.
The freezing should then take place as soon as possible after the harvest. If this is not possible, the berries can easily be stored in the refrigerator for a few days, but they should still be firm for freezing. Green gooseberries are therefore better suited than red ones, because they don't lose their consistency as quickly.
First wash the gooseberries and use scissors to remove the stalks and the remains of the blossoms. They are then briefly blanched in a pot of boiling water. If you like, you can now mix the berries with sugar in a ratio of 5:1. Then fill the berries as close together as possible in freezer bags or suitable plastic containers. Don't forget to label the jars and give them a filling date. Because the frozen berries should be used up within a year.
To better portion the gooseberries laterit is also advisable to pre-freeze the berries. To do this, the gooseberries are spread out on a baking sheet and placed in the freezer for a few hours so that they don't stick together. In order to keep them as space-saving as possible, they should later be transferred to freezer bags.
How to freeze gooseberries:
1.) Wash and clean gooseberries
2.) Blanch briefly in hot water
3.) Pre-freeze on a tray for a few hours
4.) Transfer into cans and freeze
Tip: If necessary, you can pierce the ripe fruit with a thin needle before freezing, as this reduces the risk of bursting.
Preserving gooseberries
For the production of jam or jelly, the fruits of varieties that are prone to bursting can be harvested while they are still unripe from the end of May to the beginning of June. To make jelly, the gooseberries are first washed and boiled in a little water until they burst. The remains of the fruit are then strained out and the resulting juice is simmered for about 15 minutes. Then add about 750 to 800 g of sugar per liter of juice. The jelly is further boiled until it has a firm consistency and filled into clean jars while still hot. These are then sealed airtight and placed upside down on the kitchen counter to cool. Depending on the gooseberry variety, a green, yellow or red jelly is produced. It goes wonderfully with meat dishes, but can also be used as a sweet spread.
You should definitely pay attention to this when preserving:
- Do not use overripe fruit
- Skim while cooking
- Only fill clean glasses
- Preheat glasses so they don't crack
- Fill in the jelly as hot as possible
- Fill glasses as full as possible
- Make sure the lid closes well
As gooseberries continue to ripen, rapid processing of the fruit after harvesting is recommended. Some varieties, such as 'Grüne Hansa', brown heavily during processing. Although this has no effect on the taste, the browning is not very appealing to the eye. Varieties such as the 'Yellow Triumph Berry' or the 'Green Ball' are better suited for processing.
Canning gooseberries
You can use the whole fruit to make compote. For this, the gooseberries are washedand the stem and the base of the flower are removed. A sufficiently large glass is then filled about three quarters full with the prepared gooseberries. Depending on the sweetness of the fruit, add a few tablespoons of sugar to the glass and fill it with water to just below the rim. Then screw the jar closed and place it in a pot of boiling water. The water should reach a few centimeters below the glass lid. For preservation, the pot is now covered and the glasses are boiled in it for 15 minutes. You should then store the finished gooseberry preserves in a cool and dark place.
Juicing gooseberries
You can get gooseberry juice with a steam juicer. To preserve the juice, about 200 g of sugar are added to each liter of juice and boiled. Then let it simmer for ten minutes, lift off the foam and stir in half a pack of Einsiedehilfe. Fill the hot juice into clean bottles and seal them airtight.
If you don't have a juicer, you can put the crushed gooseberries in a large saucepan and boil with water. Simmer the juice again for about ten minutes, then strain through a juice cloth and discard the resulting juice. Stir in the sugar again, boil the juice and add the Einsiedlinghilfe. Then fill the hot juice into boiled bottles and seal them airtight. The gooseberry juice should also be stored in a cool and dark place. Unopened, it can then be kept for about a year.
Tip: Sprinkled with mineral water, gooseberry juice is a wonderful refreshing drink for hot summer days and can also be used to create fruity-sweet cocktails.
Drying Gooseberries
Dried gooseberries can also be used as a raisin substitute for your muesli in winter. However, due to the high water content, drying the berries is quite laborious and takes a long time. You can dry the gooseberries for several hours in a dehydrator or in a slightly open oven with circulating air (maximum 90 °C). If possible, you should not wash the berries before drying, so as not to unnecessarily prolong the drying process. If there is still too much residual moisture, mold could form during storage. Finally, fill the dried berries in dark jars and seal them airtight.
Gooseberries aren't justdelicious, but also he althy because of their high vitamin C content. In this article we will introduce you to other types of fruit with a lot of vitamin C.