Feijoa loses its properties when frozen

Features of feijoa

Feijoa is a very whimsical plant. For the growth and ripening of fruits, it needs a tropical climate and moderate humidity. Pomona feijoa gifts are collected in late autumn - from mid-October. They choose no more ripe fruits that have already fallen from the tree. When the fruits ripen, they fall off naturally, but the ones still hanging on the branches are bucks. But when collecting fruits from the soil, you need to make sure that they are dense, whole and free from bruises.

Considering these features, it can be understood that the period when the plant is suitable for food is very short. If the fruit hits the ground too late, its internal structure is disrupted, and due to the high sugar content, fermentation may begin. That’s it, that’s why fruits need to be quickly collected and sent for processing, maybe to stores.

How to keep feijoa fresh for the winter

It is best to send the product for freezing in small bags or portioned containers, since re-freezing after defrosting will spoil the taste and color.

If you take less sweetener, you will have to freeze the product, otherwise it will most likely spoil.

How long does feijoa last?

Ripe fruits last at home for about a week. Juicy and soft fruits must be stored in the refrigerator at a temperature of +3 to -3 degrees. To do this, the berries need to be placed in a paper or porous bag - this plant needs ozone to stay fresh. In stuffy plastic packaging, feijoa will spoil faster.

If the fruits are green and tight, they need to ripen. To do this, they are left at room temperature for 4-8 days. For optimal ripening, the fruits should be laid out on thick paper in a ventilated room with an air temperature of around 22 degrees. As the starch in the berries turns into sugar, the fruit will become softer. During this period, fruits should be immediately removed from the refrigerator.

Do not keep fresh berries stretched out raw - delicate fruits quickly lose their beneficial properties and can cause intestinal upset.

Freezing methods

As we have already said, you can keep fruits fresh in the refrigerator. But unfortunately, no more than 10 days. And if the fruits are already ripe, then even less. Therefore, they must be eaten or processed immediately. We choose a processing method, specifically freezing.

We can safely say that freezing feijoa in no way affects the quality of the product. All beneficial properties are retained in the fruits.

The fruits are frozen whole, with or without sugar. Let's take a closer look.

Fruit preparation

Regardless of which freezing method you choose, we always prepare them the same way:

We sort through and remove fruits with the slightest signs of damage and black peel. After all, a healthy feijoa has a uniform green surface.
Rinse in cold water.
We cut off the butts.

Freezing whole fruits

Dry the washed and trimmed fruits on a towel. They must be dry before freezing. Place the fruits on a clean sheet in one layer and put them in the freezer. We leave them until the feijoa turns into “pebbles”. We put them in a container or plastic bag and put them away for storage. This method is possible if you have enough space in the freezer.

Frozen puree

1 way

We cut the berries into small pieces, grind them in a manual meat grinder or blend them with a blender.

Place the mixture in small portion containers and place in the freezer.

Method 2

Add granulated sugar to the crushed mass in a 1:1 ratio and mix well. There is no need to wait for the sugar to dissolve. Immediately place the puree into containers. Otherwise, the mass will darken due to contact of iodine with air.

How to extend the shelf life of green berries

Under such strict restrictions, every experienced owner and gardener has a lesson: how to preserve the harvest and get the maximum benefit from the tropical fruits of feijoa. A good way is to make jam.

There are two options: execution) for those who like to preserve the natural taste and vitamins - “like jam” - without heat treatment, and also classic jam, which can be rolled up in jars for the winter. “Live” mousse can be stored in the refrigerator for about three months, and sterilized hermetically sealed jam - like other canned fruits - can be frozen for several months.

There is no point in freezing feijoas, nor in drying the fruits. They will lose the bait's beneficial properties and pleasant taste. Compotes are not made from these berries. For variety, you can try adding berries to al jelly marmalades with other ingredients rich in pectin for good thickening.

Feijoa selection

In order to eat healthy and wholesome food, as well as preserve products for a long time, you need to take a serious approach to their choice. Feijoa maturity must be optimal, otherwise the taste will be distorted and there will be little benefit.

Externally, the berries should be dark green. Unripe fruits have bright greenish spots. The peel of a ripe delicacy is always matte and wrinkled. If you come across glossy specimens without wrinkles, you should not take such a product, it is immature.

The inside of feijoa is transparent. If the flesh is white, the fruit still needs to ripen. Brown pulp indicates that the berry is overripe. If feijoas are unripe, they can be left to lie at home; overripe fruits are unsuitable for food.

The maturity of the product is also determined by the stalks. The presence of a petiole indicates that the crop is being harvested while unripe. As a rule, ripe feijoas fall off and the fruits are collected from the ground. Dark spots on the product indicate that it has been left on the shelf and the product has deteriorated.

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Making feijoa jam

Delicious preserves should be moderately sweet, but at the same time reliably “fixed” with sugar. Therefore, to make feijoa jam, you take berries and granulated sugar in a ratio of Wotan to one, and also add water to make a syrup. Keep 1 kg of fruit (plus 1 kg of sugar) and take 0.25 liters of water.

The fruits, washed and free of defects, are ground into a pulp using a blender or meat grinder. The sugary syrup is brewed in advance: mix hot water with sugar, let the crystals disappear, bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. In this case, it’s time for the fruit mixture to have a conscience about caramel flavor. The fruit mass is poured with syrup and simmered over low heat for 10-15 minutes, after which it is poured into clean, steamed jars and rolled up properly.

Store the brew in a pantry or basement - away from drafts, in the dark and cool. It is a good idea to keep an open jar in the refrigerator for no more than a month. Otherwise, the jam will no longer be aromatic.

Useful and healing properties

Regular consumption of feijoa has a positive effect on the body:

helps prevent depression;
helps prevent colds and seasonal allergies;
improves short-term memory;
protects against free radical damage;
increases the functions of the nervous system;
reduces the likelihood of developing many forms of cancer;
reduces the likelihood of depressive disorders;
reduces the likelihood of developing anemia;
reduces the likelihood of gum disease;
reduces the possibility of developing brittle bones;
improves recovery after injury;
promotes healthy lungs;
improves blood quality;
prevents recurrent bacterial infections.

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Feijoa improves attention, concentration and memory. Feijoa contains substances such as potassium, folic acid, as well as various antioxidants that ensure healthy functioning of the nervous system. Folates reduce the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive impairment. Potassium increases blood flow to the brain, enhancing concentration and neuronal activity.

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People with type II diabetes can safely consume feijoa because it has a low glycemic index. Fructose from feijoa is absorbed into the blood more slowly, preventing sugar spikes, cravings for sweets and mood swings.

Regular consumption of feijoa also prevents the risk of anemia during pregnancy, increases the number of red blood cells or hemoglobin, ensuring proper growth and development of the fetus.

In addition, the amount of iodine in feijoa is much greater than in other fresh fruits.

Benefits of eating iodine-containing fruits:

prevention of depressive disorder;
prevention of excess weight;
goiter prevention;

prevention of weakness;
improvement of thyroid function;
help prevent exhaustion.

Eating feijoa reduces the chance of heart disease. Fiber, vitamin C and B6, and potassium have been shown to improve heart health.

Feijoas are also widely used in the production of cosmetic products. Cosmetics whiten and brighten the complexion, rejuvenate the skin. Hair products promote hair growth, health and protection. This effect is exerted by essential substances in feijoa.

Otherwise, regular consumption of feijoa prevents obesity, decreased metabolism, sensitivity to cold, fatigue, depression and dry skin.

How to make fresh feijoa jam

In order to preserve more vitamins and extend the “life” of feijoa fruits, they are preserved with sugar minus cooking. To do this, you need to thoroughly wash the berries with warm water, puree them in a blender or meat grinder, and sprinkle them with sugar.

Choose the degree of sweetness to suit your taste. The unusual thing about this preparation is that sugar interrupts the characteristic sourness of the fruit; therefore, for lovers of sweet and sour fruit mixtures, you can introduce the ratio of 0.75 kg of sugar per 1 kg of fruit. Those with a sweet tooth may like the thickly sweet dessert - 1.5 kg of sugar gets 1 kg of fruit part. Try making sour tyrsa for the first time with the minimum recommended amount of sugar - and add sweetness according to taste before freezing.

“Live” feijoa jam is not prohibited from being used as a filling for desserts, served with tea, or added to porridges and protein bars for raw foodists and vegans. Store surzhik in the refrigerator all winter.

How to freeze feijoa for the winter

And these can also be bought cheaper. Well, the color should always be dark green, and not brown with shades. And feijoa needs to be processed at home and cooked faster - the fruit quickly begins to darken, become stained, and spoil inside.

Quote: Roma from Sunday, November 06, Quote: oka from Sunday, November 06, Monday, November 07, Feijoa preparation for freezing. In the market it is not possible to cut feijoas to check the quality. I choose - I have already written above how and what to pay attention to. There may be dark spots, the main thing is that they are not deep until the very middle of the fruit.

My feijoa lay on the balcony for a couple of days, and spots also began to appear, as seen in the photo above, I cut them when cleaning them, they are all only superficial. Therefore, I cut off the large spots a little so that the flesh looked beautiful, but I didn’t even touch the small ones. The pulp inside is of high quality. However, precisely because of the lack of a boiling process, the storage duration should not exceed a month. In addition, feijoa mashed with sugar can be frozen in the freezer. Thus, you can increase the shelf life to six months.

If you choose honey as a preservative, you will get a truly healthy product that increases immunity and strengthens the body during flu and colds.

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Feijoa must be thoroughly washed, the tails cut off and cut into pieces along with the peel. Lemon will not only add vitamins to the resulting mixture, but will also prevent the jam from darkening as a result of oxidation. Unlike berries, it is still better to peel the lemon, remove the bitter skin, cut it, and remove the seeds.

To give the jam an unusual, refined taste, you can supplement the recipe with walnuts chopped in a blender. If you consume at least teaspoons of this mixture daily, your body will be protected from flu and colds. Sometimes you want to preserve feijoa for a longer period, from 6 months to a year. To do this, there are a large number of recipes for jam from these fruits with various additives: lemon, orange, pear or even cognac.

Cooking using heat treatment will take a little longer, but the results are worth it! Remove the core using a teaspoon and place all the resulting pulp in a deep bowl.

How to freeze feijoa for the winter

Add sugar and mix thoroughly. Leave the resulting mass for minutes to dissolve the sugar. Remove the zest from a washed and dried lemon to add more flavor to the jam, cut it and squeeze out the juice, being careful not to get any seeds in it. If it is difficult to determine the gender of an indeclinable noun, it is recommended to consult a spelling dictionary.

What are the benefits of feijoa? Feijoa is a storehouse of vitamins and nutrients. Pectins help remove toxins from the body. The vitamin C content of 30 mg per g of fresh feijoa pulp is close to tangerine. The fruits also contain B vitamins, especially a lot of folic acid, which is necessary for the growth and development of the circulatory and immune systems. Vitamin P increases the strength and elasticity of capillaries and lowers blood pressure. The skin of the fruit contains antioxidant polyphenols, mainly catechins and tannins, which give the unpeeled berry an astringent taste.

Essential oil is obtained from feijoa berries, which has anti-inflammatory properties and is used to treat skin diseases. But feijoa is most famous for its high content of water-soluble iodine compounds - they can be 3-10 mg per 1 kg of fruit. Iodine is necessary for the synthesis of thyroid hormones, triiodothyronine and thyroxine, which regulate metabolism. The lack of these hormones causes a feeling of lethargy, a person quickly gets tired, and sometimes becomes depressed.

Without iodine, normal pregnancy and the mental and physical development of children are impossible. However, it is not a fact that by purchasing feijoa we will provide ourselves with easily digestible iodine. The plant does not synthesize this element, but concentrates it; if there is little of it in the soil, then there is little of it in the fruits. Feijoa helps prevent fatigue, depression, weakness and weight gain, if, of course, it is eaten without sugar.

The berry itself is low in calories, with only 49 kcal per g. Feijoa is useful for pregnant women, people suffering from thyroid diseases, atherosclerosis, pyelonephritis, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, including gastritis with low acidity.

The berries have antibacterial properties, especially against E. coli and staphylococcus. This is a wonderful tonic and restorative. How to tell if a berry is ripe?

Keywords

Feijoa is a tender fruit. Ripe berries spoil quickly and do not tolerate transportation very well. Therefore, they try to sell them in the same place where they are grown, and for transportation they are collected unripe. It is believed that they will make it on the road, but this is not always the case. It is not possible to tell from the appearance of a feijoa whether the berry is ripe: it remains green until it begins to rot. But you can gently squeeze the fruit with your fingers: if it is ripe, it is soft and yielding.

It is safer to cut the berry. The unripe fruit is greenish inside, and the core is milky white. In ripe fruits, it acquires a jelly consistency and transparency. Closer to the peel, the pulp is denser; it is even used in cosmetology as a scrub.

Overripe feijoa becomes brown inside. Some experts claim that in this state the berry is still good for juice and can even be eaten, while others advise throwing it away. How long can feijoa be stored? It is believed that it is better to eat a ripe berry on the very day it was picked from the tree.

How to choose good feijoa fruits

When buying exotic berries in a store or greengrocer, keep in mind that delicate fruits may be treated with special compounds to extend their shelf life. And since feijoa is consumed as one with a dense crust, wash the berry thoroughly with warm water.

There should be no slippery sticky residue on the surface of the fruit. The fruits should be elastic, without softened areas or darkening, as there are signs of fermentation or rotting. Choose whole, bright green fruits with brown fragments and inclusions. Do not take berries with stalks - the fruits fall off, being torn from them, and the presence of a petiole indicates that the fruit was picked unprofitably ripe.

Feijoa fruits that ripen on a tree gain more vitamins than those that ripen “lying down” - they have a slightly more intense and rich aroma.

Storage Features

Feijoa fruits that ripen on a tree gain more vitamins than those that ripen “lying down” - they have a slightly more intense and rich aroma.

To fully discover the taste of feijoa, you need to choose ripe berries. An unripe fruit will arrive at room temperature in a few days, but will significantly lose its usefulness. The most nutritious feijoas are those that have matured on the tree.

When choosing berries you need to pay attention to the following features:

Feijoa color. A ripe fruit has a dark green skin without individual bright spots. The surface of the berry is wrinkled and matte, and the flesh is transparent. If the inside of the fruit is brown, it is overripe. The white flesh indicates that the feijoa is still unripe.
There should be no dark spots or brown streaks on the skin. If they appear, it means that the feijoa has been lying around for too long and has already begun to deteriorate.
The berries are not picked from the tree, but collected from the ground. Ripe feijoas fall off on their own. Therefore, you should not choose those fruits that have a stalk. This means that they were cut before they were ripe.

Tropical berries retain all their benefits for two weeks after harvest. Taking into account the long transportation, packaging and time on the shelf, there is a week to a week and a half left for storage and processing. Most of the beneficial microelements do not tolerate constant contact with air and gradually decompose, making feijoa completely useless.

Before storing purchased feijoas, it is necessary to determine the degree of ripeness. If, when pressed, the skin does not press, hardness is felt, and there is no pronounced odor, then the berry should be ripe. To do this, it must be placed in a dark place with indirect sunlight, the optimal temperature is not lower than 22 degrees around the clock.

To maintain integrity, it is better to spread the harvest on soft towels. It is necessary to organize high-quality ventilation, this will speed up ripening and prevent rapid rotting. The berries will ripen at different times, so they should be checked daily, selecting the softest ones for further processing.

Fresh berries can only be stored in the refrigerator at a temperature of 10 to 14 degrees, these are the best indicators. It should be placed in the so-called “freshness zones”. There is a higher level of humidity here, up to 80%! Thanks to this, the crust will not dry out, and the filling of pulp and juice will remain just as fresh.

You can additionally wrap the fruits in parchment paper, this will also help preserve them. The access to air and light should be limited: in the refrigerator they will not be able to affect the fruits, but when placing them in regular pantries, it is important to remove the berries away from windows, since exposure to the sun promotes further ripening and subsequent rotting.

Preparing feijoa for storage is not too difficult. If the fruits remain intact when fresh, you should carefully wipe them with a fleecy cloth, removing dusty and natural white coating. If the berries are to be frozen, they must be rinsed under running water, dried on a towel, then put into bags or skinned, crushed and packaged.

Paper bags or special boxes, for example, for cheese, are great for preserving fresh product. They have very small openings for weak natural ventilation. It is better to store prepared jam in a glass container, since the product is capable of accumulating various odors, including a metallic taste. It is better to freeze the ground mass in small plastic containers made of special frost-resistant materials.

Fresh berries can last from 10 to 14 days, depending on the degree of ripeness and the amount of damage during transportation. It is advisable to recycle them afterwards. When frozen, the greatest amount of vitamins and microelements is preserved for six months. It is advisable to use the jam within one year.

Most often you can find dried, dried or pressed fruits on sale. Where to store dates in this case?

Just like fresh, dried and sun-dried dates are placed in a plastic container or glass jar with a lid and stored in the refrigerator. Dried fruits in such conditions will “last” for about 1 year. They are not washed before storing; this must be done before use.

Fresh fruits need to be eaten or processed fairly quickly. Today you can find feijoas on sale that grew in the south of the country and in nearby states, since the berry is not too demanding of climatic conditions. This increases the possible shelf life, but you should not keep feijoa in the refrigerator for more than 2 weeks. Moreover, this product, interesting in taste, can be the basis for original jam, the so-called “live” preparation or real jam.

How to freeze

If there is enough free space in the chamber, you can save time on preparing puree and freeze the fruits whole. They need to be washed thoroughly, dried on a paper towel, then cut. The entire stalk and tail should be removed, cutting off even the pulp. Place the berries in the freezer in one layer, laid out on a cutting board or parchment. When the feijoa is completely hard, like a stone, you can put it into bags.

Puree takes up much less space and is not very difficult to make. Grind the berries together with the peel in a meat grinder or blender until smooth. The first option is good because the puree has a pronounced structure with small pieces, while a blender allows you to get a smoother mass. It is best to send the product for freezing in small bags or portioned containers, since re-freezing after defrosting will spoil the taste and color.

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Preparation with sugar

Sugar allows you to preserve berries for a long time without freezing or with it. The optimal proportion is 1:1. The berry itself has a pronounced sour taste, so it is almost impossible to sweeten the puree. If you take less sweetener, you will have to freeze the product, otherwise it will most likely spoil.

Jam

Quick heat treatment for 3-5 minutes will allow you to preserve the maximum of useful microelements. Pass the fruits through a meat grinder, mix with sugar in a ratio of 1:0.8 or 1:1, depending on the desired taste. Pour one glass of cool water into the bottom of the pan and add the berry mixture. Turn on low heat, stirring constantly, and bring to a boil. Wait for the foam to appear, remove it, turn it off and pour the hot jam into sterilized jars.

An interesting addition to the main ingredient would be:

pears;
kiwi;
oranges;
pine or walnuts;
apples;
pomegranate seeds.

You can add such products to purees before cooking. An effective remedy for strengthening the immune system can be obtained by adding orange peels, minced through a meat grinder, to the jam. You can store this jam even without a refrigerator if you carefully prepare the jars.

Like many other berries, the life of fresh feijoa is short. It can be stored for 7–10 days from the date of collection. And if you have purchased ripe fruits, do not delay enjoyment and try to eat them in the coming days.

If you decide to make useful supplies for the winter, get ready for various preservation methods. To begin, choose a fairly ripe berry that is suitable for storage.

Signs of a ripe feijoa berry:

textured surface with roughness, matte (not shiny, not smooth, like an unripe one);
dark green color of the peel: absence of bright green spots indicating insufficient ripeness and dark spots indicating overripeness or staleness of the berry;
A naturally ripe berry does not have a stalk; it is collected from the ground after ripening and falling from the bush, and is not cut;
the color of the pulp is transparent, not white, like an unripe fruit, and not brown, like an overripe one;
the ripeness of the fruit does not depend on the size, but only on the variety;
ripe berries are juicy and have a specific sourness;

An unripe picked fruit reaches ripeness within 2-4 days, but inevitably loses some of its beneficial properties compared to something ripened directly on the tree.

Feijoa with lemon, ginger and honey

You will need:

0.6 kg. – fresh feijoa
1 PC. – lemon
500 gr. – honey
3 pinches – ground ginger

How to cook:

1. To prepare a health cocktail, you will have to wash 600 grams. feijoa, cut off the sepals from both ends, grind in a blender.

2. Remove zest and seeds from the lemon and squeeze out the juice. Chop the zest.

3. Stir lemon and feijoa pulp, 3 pinches of ginger and lemon juice until smooth.

4. Add 500 g. honey and mix all ingredients again.

5. The sweet mass is laid out in containers and sealed with sterile lids, then put into the refrigerator. You can use sugar instead of honey, but the quality will be worse.

Feijoa: how to store

If you are wondering how to store feijoa, then you have already become acquainted with this wonderful berry for its exotic taste and health benefits. This plant is native to South America, but today it can also be found in the southern regions of Russia.

Feijoa appears on the shelves of markets and supermarkets in “cooler” regions mostly in the fall, in October and November. The aroma and taste of feijoa is reminiscent of strawberries, kiwi and pineapple. In our latitudes, this berry is especially valued because, in addition to vitamin C, it contains an amount of iodine comparable to seafood, which is valuable in iodine-deficient regions.

About the beneficial properties of the fruit

We will try to answer the question posed, but first let’s find out why fruits are useful.

The fruit contains a large number of various vitamins, macro- and microelements, organic substances, and essential oils.

Experts say that feijoa contains almost the entire periodic table. In a word, a real storehouse of health. But the most important thing, perhaps, is vitamin C and iodine.

Fruits are compared to seafood in terms of iodine content.

Attention! Most of this element is found in feijoas growing near the sea.

Nutritionists also highly value feijoas and recommend them as a dietary food, as well as for preventive and therapeutic purposes:

for problems with the thyroid gland;
for inflammatory processes of the gastrointestinal tract and gastritis;
with atherosclerosis and vitamin deficiency;
with hypovitaminosis and pyelonephritis;
gout, as well as during the cold season.

Doctors advise people who constantly experience mental stress to consume feijoa.

Important! Eating feijoa berries helps strengthen the immune system.

Feijoa has another unique property - allergic reactions to it practically do not occur. Therefore, feijoa can be consumed at any age. Even women in an interesting position and while breastfeeding can safely include them in their diet.

About the benefits of the fruit:

Since the fruits are so healthy, and their presence on shelves is limited to a few months, the question arises of how to preserve aromatic fruits in winter. There are many options:

grind the fruits with sugar;
make jam without cooking;
make jams, compotes.

But our readers are interested in whether it is possible to freeze fruits, and how to do it better.