It’s greatest to select the fruit within the early morning when the temperature is cool and the berries are plump with moisture. In the course of the fruiting season, you’ll need to exit to select not less than as soon as every week till the fruit is depleted for the season.
Learn how to Harvest
Until you’re rising a thornless selection, you’ll want a pair of excellent backyard gloves to select these. Issues will get prickly!
The berries ought to come proper off the plant after they’re plucked. Not like raspberries, the core of the berry ought to stay intact while you harvest, slightly than being left behind on the plant.
When harvesting, lay the berries gently in a flat-bottomed basket or shallow container – this can hold them from being bruised below the burden of different berries, and can assist extend the storage lifetime of your fruit.
One thing like this 16-inch woven basket by Winco that’s accessible on Amazon will do properly. The fruits are very delicate and injury simply, so deal with with care.
Winco Woven Basket
When you’re harvesting, bear in mind to reward your self to your laborious work with just a few recent berries. They’re so tasty proper off the cane!
Storing and Preservation
Right here’s the dangerous information: this fruit is extremely perishable and must be loved or preserved inside three to 6 days after harvesting. Chorus from washing your berries till you’re able to eat or cook dinner them, to stop rot.
Refrigeration
You’ll need to place your recent berries within the fridge in a shallow container till you’re prepared to make use of them.
Cowl your container with both a paper towel or plastic wrap with holes for air flow.
Freezing
There’s a particular method used to freeze and retailer blackberries. Actually, you should use this method to freeze your blueberries too.
Following these steps will assist to maintain them from forming a strong ball of frozen fruit in your freezer:
- Rinse and allow them to dry utterly.
- Seize a cookie sheet, and easily unfold your berries throughout it in a single layer.
- Place your cookie sheet within the freezer to freeze the berries individually – this makes it simpler to take out solely what you want sooner or later.
- As soon as they’re absolutely frozen, switch to zip-top freezer luggage, label, and retailer.
You’ll be able to hold frozen berries for as much as one yr!
When thawed, the feel shall be barely mushy. Utilizing the freezing technique for storage is nice for making recipes like pies, dessert casseroles, or smoothies.
You may additionally benefit from the number of blackberry recipes which might be accessible on our sister website, Foodal.
Canning
Canning is my absolute favourite technique to protect acidic fruits. If finished accurately, canning your blackberries gives you scrumptious taste for as much as one yr.
This fruit holds up surprisingly properly to canning and can be utilized in baking, or as a topping to your morning cereal or yogurt.