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Best way to freeze gooseberries & blackcurrants

jojowjojow Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hello all, I’m new to this forum and could do with some advice. In January we inherited a fantastic set of raised veg beds full of established veg and soft fruit (gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrant, raspberries, artichokes, rhubarb).

We lost all our redcurrants in the space of 48 hours to the birds (amateur mistake I won’t make again!), so keen to avoid the same with the blackcurrants and gooseberries, I harvested most of the ripe fruit yesterday. 

My question is, what is the best way to preserve them NOW for use later in the year? I want to make compotes, summer pudding, crumbles etc but don’t have time at the moment. Do I just wash them and then put in portioned freezer bags? Ideally I’d like to preserve their texture and flavour as much as possible.

Thanks so much for your advice! As you can tell. This is all very new to us...

Posts

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    If you wash them, then the water left on the skins freezes as well so they then stick together in a huge clump. So, we always froze them as they came off the bush. Spread them out on flat trays, put them in the freezer. When frozen, separate and put them in bags back in the freezer.
  • Bee witchedBee witched Posts: 1,295
    Hi @jojow,

    I do wash them and cut the stalk ends off the gooseberries.
    I then spin them in the salad spinner so they are dry, then pop them in freezer bags in lots of about 400- 500g.

    Bee x
    Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders  

    A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2019
    Palustris said:
    If you wash them, then the water left on the skins freezes as well so they then stick together in a huge clump. So, we always froze them as they came off the bush. Spread them out on flat trays, put them in the freezer. When frozen, separate and put them in bags back in the freezer.
    I do exactly the same :) just top and tail them first.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • jojowjojow Posts: 2
    Brilliant. Thank you.
  • Green MagpieGreen Magpie Posts: 806
    I just top and tail them (or chop rhubarb) and then freeze. I don't wash them, as there's nothing on them that needs washing off.  For gooseberries I just use freezer bags, but for softer fruits like blackcurrants and raspberries I use those shallow plastic boxes that takeaway meals often come in.  If you're short of space, you can cook/puree them first, as long as that suits your eventual purpose. Sometimes I freeze a mix of half-cooked fruits for later use in a summer pudding.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I don't even top and tail them or wash. It's all perfectly edible and softens in the cooking - you can't tell the difference. Definitely don't wash any soft fruit as it ruins the flavour and makes them stick together when frozen, anything nasty gets killed off in the cooking. I only freeze raspberries, which are easily squashed, and chopped up rhubarb on open trays then put them into bags.   Anything else gets put straight into bags to freeze or plastic boxes.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
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