Freezing Hawthorn Berries – With the fantastic weather we’ve had in the UK this year, all indications are that it’s going to be a tough year for many wild fruits.
Freezing forage fruits is the easiest, most convenient and least time-consuming way to preserve them. Properly frozen fruits retain their fresh taste and nutritional value.
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Freezing Hawthorn Berries
Like most people, the kids and I love to forage. Foraging is simply the search and gathering of wild food. There are good reasons to forage.
Eclectic Institute, Freeze Dried Fresh, Hawthorn Berry, 500 Mg, 90 Veg Caps
Wild foods are far more nutritious than commercially produced crops, and the meals in our hedgerows are what our ancestors evolved to eat, making them essential to our health. Foraging also allows us to learn and pass on our knowledge, as well as giving us a closer connection to the natural world around us.
Common sense also says that if you completely clear an area of wild food, you are damaging that habitat, so gather only where food is abundant and only consume reasonable amounts.
Only collect and eat a wild food that you are 100% sure you have correctly identified. Be aware of what is in the area you are harvesting from. Plants near busy roads may absorb greenhouse gases from vehicles. If the surrounding fields are sprayed with pesticides, it is likely that some of them will find their way into wild plants. And if waterways are polluted, your native plants will drink that water.
We are very lucky because the farmer who owns the fields near our house is always happy for us to buy fodder on his land. I recommend still rotating it with a jar or bottle of whatever you’re making – it’s a great way to build a relationship!
Amazon.com: Eclectic Hawthorn Berry Freeze Dried Vegetables With Glass, Blue, 50 Count
I’ve learned over the years that if I wait a few days to pick fruit and process it all, I end up losing the crop altogether. So now I just pick the fruit when I feel like it and then stick it whole in the freezer until I’m ready to use it.
Freezing forage fruits is one of the easiest, most convenient and least time consuming ways to preserve them. Properly frozen fruits retain their fresh taste and nutritional value. However, their texture may be somewhat softer than that of fresh fruit, this is because the freezing process damages the cell wall structure.
This may seem like a negative factor until you consider what you are likely to use your foraged fruits for. If you look at recipes for winemaking, sloe gin, or rose liqueur, many of them will tell you to pick your fruit after the first frost.
They tell you that you will get a sweeter and tastier result. In other words, due to damage to the cell wall, colors and flavors are more easily stored in the ingredients. This means you get more out of your fruit.
Frosty Hawthorn Berries
Freezing foraged fruits prepares them to be used for cooking, making juice, jelly, hedge ketchup, fruit curd, fruit juice and wine. With Sloes, that means you don’t have to worry about sticking a pin in them, and with Rose Hips, you don’t have to crush them before making jelly or fondant. Freezing fruit gives you the luxury of making your own preserves when you’re ready. If blackberries are available but you are not… freeze them!
Another benefit of freezing foraged fruit is that you often don’t have enough fruit to make a whole batch of what you want to make. Not all fruits come into season equally. Freezing fruit allows you to stock up until you have enough to make a whole bunch.
For amazing ideas on ways to use up your foraged fruit, please check out our recipes for Fruit Leather, Rosehip Apple Jello and Crab and Fruit Spirits.