The summer season presents an optimal opportunity to focus on achieving a trim physique. With an array of fresh fruits in abundance, these can be more than just diet staples. Raspberries, cherries, and other fruits can be skillfully preserved for later use, seamlessly integrating into smoothies and fruit salads in the months ahead. Thus, relishing their flavour and vitamin content throughout the entire year becomes a reality. Here, we showcase the top summer fruits that hold potential to assist you on your weight loss endeavors.
Harvesting and Refrigerating Fresh Fruits: Ensuring Optimal Storage
Every so often, granting harvested fruits additional time to ripen post-harvest proves advantageous. Thus, appropriate storage methods become paramount. Through effective storage, the longevity of summer fruits can be significantly prolonged. And, as an alternative to traditional fruit preservation methods, the efficient Lava vacuum sealing system offers a swift solution. This innovative device enables easy and rapid vacuum sealing of canning jars, ensuring fruit freshness and prolonged storage.
Essential Guidelines for Proper Fruit Storage
1. Storing Fresh Fruits: Place unwashed fruits either in a crate or inside the refrigerator. Moist fruits, like strawberries, tend to be more susceptible to molding. Additionally, washing them can potentially strip away their natural protective layer. It’s advisable to wash fruits just before consuming them. However, if you plan to vacuum seal or freeze the fruits, it’s recommended to wash them beforehand.
2. Checking for Signs of Damage: Ensure that individual fruits are devoid of any pressure marks or visible damage. Set aside any damaged fruits, trim off the affected areas, and prepare them for immediate consumption. Fresh fruits can be successfully stored in the refrigerator for a few days. Suitable choices encompass plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, pears, cherries, figs, and berries. Maintain the refrigerator’s temperature within the range of 2 – 4 °C.
3. Leveraging Vegetable Compartments: The refrigerator’s vegetable compartments provide an optimal setting for storing fruits. Equally significant is maintaining the appropriate humidity level within this compartment. Alternatively, you can achieve favorable storage conditions by using a slightly damp kitchen towel.
A Perfect Choice for Freezing
During bountiful garden harvests, freezing fresh berries proves to be a wise strategy. The fruits retain their vitamin content for several months. An excellent treat for smoothie enthusiasts: Directly blending the frozen berries creates an ideal sipping temperature. Conversely, watery fruits like apples or pears are best transformed into a puree before freezing. Otherwise, thawing them might result in an unappealing fruit mass. Natural berries can be stored in the freezer for up to ten months. However, plums and prunes are better utilized for baking or desserts within the initial six months.
Pro Tip: Begin by individually freezing the berries on a small tray, then transfer them into bags. This approach allows for convenient single-fruit retrieval.
The Tree Laden with Cherries - Smart Freezing Method
Garden enthusiasts are familiar with it: Some years, the cherry tree is laden with plump cherries. However, even a family can’t consume so many at once. Thus, they are stored for the autumn and winter seasons. One option is to preserve the fruits by canning, which requires numerous jars. However, those with a sufficiently large freezer at home can choose to freeze the cherries. As always, the fruits should be washed and especially well dried.
1. Lay a large absorbent kitchen towel on the table and spread the cherries out to dry. Naturally, remove the stems.
2. Set the freezer to rapid freeze mode. This small step ensures that the fruits retain their shape after thawing.
3. Take a small tray or plate and place the cherries separately on it. Allow them to remain in the freezer for about two hours.
4. Only then, place them into a dedicated freezer bag. An ideal choice is a resealable freezer bag that can be opened and closed multiple times.
With this simple storage method, you can enjoy your harvest for nearly a year. For those who wish to pit their cherries before freezing, a brief spell in the freezer for a few minutes is enough. Once they’ve firmed up slightly, the pits can be easily removed. The fruit flesh retains its shape and can later be used for cherry pie.
Caution in Fruit Ripening!
Bananas play a role in the ripening process of various types of fruit. If freshly harvested apples are placed alongside bananas in the refrigerator or kitchen, they tend to ripen quickly. Bananas should only be placed with other types of fruit when rapid ripening is desired.
It’s no longer a secret: People who consume a lot of fruit are often slimmer. When embarking on a diet, including a variety of fruits in the meal plan is beneficial. With a garden of your own and a wide range of berries and fruits available, weight loss becomes even easier. The flavonoids found in these fruits provide support to any diet.
Hence, it’s important to identify fruits with high flavonoid content. For instance, berries such as strawberries, especially blueberries and raspberries, as well as apples are high in flavonoids. Even scientific research is delving into the supportive role of fruit in weight loss. In a study, researchers discovered that regularly consuming pears could be effective in combating excess weight. Participants who incorporated these crisp fruits into their diets were better able to maintain their weight compared to those who didn’t.
The Vacuum Sealer - An Alternative to Freezer Bags
Ensure that fresh fruits maintain their delightful flavours, vacuum sealing them is a worthy choice. This process involves preserving fruits without any air, allowing them to remain shelf-stable. With our food vacuum sealing machines, you might even find yourself skipping the process of canning fruits. Factors such as the cost of jars and the individual sugar content required for canning are also important to consider. When vacuum sealing in LAVA cryovac rolls & bags, you’re preserving your food without any additives. Neither sugar nor citric acid is necessary. What remains is the freshness and the authentic taste of the self-harvested fruit varieties. This promptly highlights the biggest advantage: guilt-free taste without the extra calories. So, you can continue your diet worry-free.
Preserving Freshness with Lava Vacuum Containers
You can achieve an airtight seal with your food vacuum storage containers through vacuum sealing as well. Many individuals are familiar with the predicament: jars not sealing properly, contents spoiling, or needing to be consumed quickly. Those who regularly wish to store their own harvested fruit are in need of a reliable alternative. After all, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to needlessly discard quality food. With our spacious Lava vacuum sealing apparatus, canning jars can be effortlessly and swiftly sealed under vacuum. This specialized mechanism ensures that every last bit of air is extracted from the jar. The result is immediately evident: each individual jar remains hermetically sealed over time.
Our practical Lava vacuum containers empower you to store any type of fruit henceforth. As oxygen is removed from the food, its shelf life is prolonged, and it remains fresh. Even the vibrant color of freshly picked red cherries remains intact.
Vacuum sealing stands as a health-conscious alternative to canning. Flavour and vitamins are preserved consistently. The fruits maintain their shape, always appearing appetizing. And of course, it’s up to you whether you vacuum seal individual varieties such as plums or berries or blend the fruits directly together.
Our tip for you: Peel fruits like apples or bananas before vacuum sealing. This will extend their shelf life.
Verified owner
