How to make harvesting of woodland strawberries for the winter?

Forest strawberries are little used in cooking - small, but juicy and fragrant berries are preferred by many to be consumed fresh. Surprisingly, forest berries contain more vitamins than home-grown varieties. That is why it is often used for medicinal and prophylactic purposes. From forest strawberries can be cooked compote, jam, jam. It is no less beautiful, both fresh and ground. To learn how to prepare a half-moon for the winter, read our article.

The meadow strawberry is a rather fragile berry, which already at the assembly stage requires a special relationship. In order not to mash the berries you need to collect them in wide and low containers, laying out a thin layer. It is best suited for this basket and tureski of birch bark. In them, the berry will be ventilated, which will bring the strawberries to the house whole and fresh.

If it is not possible to use containers made from natural materials, the usual plastic containers will fit, in which you first need to make several holes. If large-scale picking of berries is planned, it is better to use wooden boxes as a container.

Probably, this is the most problematic stage in the preparation of wild strawberries, since it is necessary to remove the sepals very carefully, without damaging the berry itself. This can be extremely difficult to do, so many people brew the berry together with the “tops”.

If you still manage to clean the fruit, do not rush to throw away the sepals - they can become the basis of health tea. Previously, strawberry waste was used for medicinal purposes, preparing a healing broth.

Rinse better in small portions using a colander. Try not to touch the berries in the process of washing, and shake - so more likely to keep the strawberries intact.

You will need:

• 1 kg of strawberries;
• 1.5 kg of sugar.

Cooking method. Fresh berries need to be processed and preferably cleaned from the stem. Clean strawberries for half a minute immersed in boiling water, then put in a colander to glass the water. Next, the berry is folded in an enamel bowl, covered with sugar and left for 6 hours.

The mixture is put on the fire, from time to time gently stirring, so that the sugar is evenly distributed throughout the container. In order to less traumatize the berries, you can use a wooden spatula, while the berries do not interfere, but rather shake. This will prevent sugar from sticking to the bottom. Cook until ready. After that, the jam is poured into containers and rolled. Banks do not turn, but necessarily wrapped. Keep the finished jam better in a dark cool place.

You will need:

• 1 kg of berries;
• 0.5 kg of sugar;
• 0.05 kg ginger root;
• lemon juice.

Cooking method. Strawberries are peeled, washed, mixed with sugar, grated ginger root and added a little lemon juice or citric acid. The resulting gruel is set on fire and brought to a boil. A film will form on the surface of the mass, which should be carefully removed. After boiling the pan with the strawberry mass is removed from the stove, covered with gauze and left for 10-12 hours.

After the confiture, they put it on the stove again, add a little lemon juice and cook until thick, removing the film if necessary. Hot mass is poured into sterilized jars, sealed, turned over, wrapped and left to cool.

Forest strawberry tolerates frost well. Of course, the texture of the berry changes a little - it becomes softer, and its color can change. Nevertheless, delicious compotes and sweets are obtained from frozen strawberries.

For freezing use a special plastic container intended for a long stay in the freezer. Usually at the bottom of such dishes there are corresponding marks and it is easy to purchase in the dishes. You need to freeze in a clean, odorless container. Otherwise, the berries absorb foreign flavor.

For freezing select strong whole berries. The stems can not be separated so that the strawberries do not give juice. It is advisable to rinse the berries or at least rinse with cold water and dry on a towel so that the water does not freeze along with the berries, turning them into one ice lump.

To freeze in a plastic container is better in thin layers. When freezing in a bag, it is imperative that you release the air and tie it.

It tolerates freezing shredded strawberries with sugar.

You will need:

• 1 kg of strawberries;
• 0.2 kg of powdered sugar.

The processed berry is laid out in a thin layer on cling film, wrapped and sent to the freezer for a couple of hours. After the berries are transferred to the tray, sprinkled with sugar and put back in the freezer

• Collect berries need only in dry weather. If, however, the berries were harvested after the rain, they need to be sorted out, processed and sorted as quickly as possible. Wet forest strawberries are stored for a very short time.
• Since the half-pulley is easily deformed, in the process of preparing blanks you should not repeatedly pour it from one container to another - the berries may lose shape or simply turn into mush.
• For the preparation of preserves, jam or compote for preservation you need to use stainless steel, aluminum or brass utensils.
• When cooking, mix strawberries very carefully. Also, do not bring it to a strong boil.
• Citric acid does not give jam quickly to sugar.
• Ready-made jam should be poured into a little warm under the jars, otherwise the berries will rise up.

See the video below for a recipe for making wild strawberries with sugar for the winter.