food and drink

Like most berries, blueberries are delicious, healthy, and versatile. They are used to make jams, cake and ice cream toppings, and pie fillings. Grow blueberries inside your home so you can harvest this delicious fruits for the next several years. Because blueberries have many uses as a dessert and as an ingredient in baking recipes, here are some of the practical tips that you need to remember when storing them.

Grow huge blueberries and pick when at the peak of ripeness. When you have your basket of blueberries, go over each piece carefully to check for those berries, which are damaged, overripe, or spoiled. Throw these away as they can cause mold to spread to the other berries and spoil the whole batch. It is also at this point when you need to get rid of the remaining stems.

Decide on what to use to berries for. Blueberries have diverse uses that you could just eat them as they are. Should you plan to eat your pickings fresh, rinse them under cool water to remove unwanted particles.

If you plan to cook with the berries but not right away, the best idea would be to freeze them. First, the fruits should be rinsed under cool water and then dried gently. Place the berries in a shallow pan and cover (with a plastic wrap or something similar), and store them in the freezer. Use frozen berries for smoothies, fruit shakes, jams, or pie fillings because freezing will cause the fruits to lose a bit of their flavor and texture.

Another great way to store blueberries is to include them in muffin, pancake, or cake batter and then place in the freezer. When you crave for blueberry muffins, just take out the batter and bake. You’ll have blueberry muffins in no time.

Don’t forget to allow for cross-pollination so you can grow big blueberries. This will let you enjoy the fruit’s delicious flavor more. Blueberries are popular in desserts, baking, and in some savory dishes. Store them carefully so you can have something to use when the need arises.