Blueberry freezing

Hi Mike,

It's not worth the trouble to freeze the fresh blueberries ( Vaccinium corymbosum ) the approximate storage life is 10-18 days.

Many people believe that freezing will break down the cell walls in the fruit and you will get better yield. I am not positive that this is really true if you ferment on the pulp but it would not hurt.

Ray

You are probably right about freezing process, however using a liquidizer would have a greater effect of breaking down the flesh.

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What is a liquidizer? Tom

aka Blender (food processor like Cuisinart is reasonable substitute).

Could also use a 'ricer' [yeah i'm old enuf to have one] which crushes the fruit and squeezes it through small holes.

But freezing the fruit accomplishes the same thing with much less effort and doesn't seem to hurt the flavor.

Gene

I avoid using a blender with any fruit that has seeds that I do not remove. Blending will break down the seeds and that is usually not good. Blueberries do not have much in the way of seeds but the do have them. Not sure of their effect on the wine ...

Ray

I think blenders can also work up the pectin in some fruit and cause jelling. I've never thought about it with wine, but my wife makes "fruit smoothies" and sometimes they jell solid a few hours after blending.

--arne