 Fruits can be frozen and still be as tasty as fresh fruit if they are properly selected, prepared, packaged, frozen, stored and thawed. However, if you try to skip even one step, you can ruin the quality of your fruit. So be sure to follow the reliable research information given to you in this presentation. When it comes to selecting the fruit that you want to grow, it is best to go to our website at www.aces.edu and in the search engine type in Freezing Summer's Bounty of Fruits. This publication gives you a list of the different fruits and the varieties of each that grow best in Alabama. Or you can always contact your local Extension Office for more information. Okay, list you have two picking. When is it a good time to pick the fruit? You do want to select fruits that are firm ripe, meaning that they should be firm for good texture, yet ripe with good flavor. And when you're picking fruits for freezing, the fruits should be ripe enough to eat. They will have the flavor, the color, texture and nutrients that are characteristic of the fruits. So soft peaches and berries are not good to eat when they're fresh, so of course they're not going to be good to eat after they've been frozen and thawed. And the same is true of under ripe fruit. Generally if the fruit is good to eat fresh, then it will freeze well too. And it's best to pick fruit from the bush or the tree, so that it doesn't get bruised. If it falls on the ground, it's going to get bruised more than likely. Fruits that are prepared for freezing need to be prepared within 12 hours after they've been picked and they're better than those of course that have been kept for a longer time. The key for pear, which is extremely hard, is perhaps the only fruit that is grown in Alabama that is recommended to be picked when it's two-thirds to three-fourths the full size. When the green of the immature fruit gradually fades and the fruit becomes lighter or slightly yellow in color, it must then be stored one layer deep in a cool 60 to 65 degree dry place for two weeks. This pear is not frozen often and it is a better product if it's canned. Okay, you've prepared, you've picked the fruit, now you want to prepare it. So how do you do that? You want to be sure, first of all, that you handle it carefully during preparation to avoid any bruising. Then you want to sort, wash, and peel it if needed and then cut into uniform slices, balls, cubes, half or quarters. However you want it to be used when you take it from the frozen state and thaw it. For your strawberries and blackberries, you first want to wash them and then you remove the caps. If you remove the caps first, the grit and the dirt will get into the fruit. So when you're using the dry and the tray pack methods, you do not want to wash the blueberries. Washing prior to freezing can cause the skin to become tough. If you're pureeing or crushing and then preserving using sugar, then it's okay to wash the blueberries prior to using this method. And when you wash them, you want to lift them from the water rather than pouring the water from the fruit. And you also want to prepare only two or three pints of fruit at a time and when these are in the freezer, then you can prepare two or three more pints. This reduces darkening of the fruit, which we're going to talk about on how to prevent that. Okay, so how do you prevent your fruit from browning or darkening? Peeled peaches, apples and pears, they turn brown due to oxidation. Some of your varieties are going to turn brown more than others. And so here are some optional methods that you can use to help prevent your fruit from darkening. To one gallon of water, you will add two tablespoons of salt and two tablespoons of vinegar. Now this needs to be distilled clear vinegar is the best kind to use. You do not allow the fruit to stay in the solution for longer than 15 to 20 minutes because that fruit can absorb that salt and vinegar flavor. And then it'll give it an off kind of bad flavor. Then you want to rinse the fruit before the sugar or the syrup is added to it. The second method is to one gallon of water add one teaspoon of citric acid and you can get this in powder form. You do not want to leave the fruit in the solution longer than 30 minutes because again the fruit can develop a slightly acidic flavor and the fruit in using this method does not need to be rinsed. Okay, and then the third method is for you want to add one gallon of water to the one gallon of water. I'm sorry you want to add a teaspoon of ascorbic acid and this is available in powder form as well. The fruit does not need to be rinsed. The fourth method is to use an ascorbic acid mixture. You can get this in grocery stores or drug stores and you want to follow your manufacturer's directions. Usually you use two teaspoons of the ascorbic acid mixture to a gallon of water and the fruit here does not need to be rinsed either. The fifth method or the last method is to drop the peeled fruit immediately into syrup that may or may not have had the ascorbic acid or ascorbic acid mixture added to it. For ascorbic acid you want to use an eighth teaspoon to each cup cold syrup and follow your manufacturer's directions for ascorbic acid mixtures. So if you use one of the first four methods it's not necessary that you add ascorbic acid or ascorbic acid mixture to your syrup for sugar provided that you prepare only two or three pints at a time. However, many choose to add one of these antioxidants. Ascorbic acid is vitamin C which is one of the vitamins that cannot be stored in your body and it should be eaten daily. Ascorbic acid mixture is generally composed of ascorbic acid, sucrose or sugar and citric acid. And remember citric acid is from citrus fruits like lemons and grapefruits that sort of thing. Freezing fruits with syrup and sugar isn't necessary but it does make a better tasting product. Many people are on a low sugar diet and they may want to use one of the sugar substitutes and that's fine. You just want to check with your doctor and be sure that this is acceptable. And the recipes for using sugar substitutes you can get those from the manufacturer. So for a syrup pack a 40% syrup which is three cups of sugar and four cups of water this is what is used for most fruits and depending on the natural sweetness of the fruit and how sweet you like it you can use half or two-thirds cup syrup for each pint of fruit. The syrup does not need to be heated to dissolve the sugar normally you just stir it but if it does become necessary that you need to heat the syrup then you want to cool it before you add the syrup to the fruit. Ascorbic acid or ascorbic acid mixtures can be added. With those you want to follow the manufacturer's directions for the ascorbic acid mixture. For ascorbic acid you use half a teaspoon to one quart of cool syrup. Citric acid can give the fruit an acidity taste. And you want to allow headspace of course in your freezer containers because you know when you freeze them they will expand or they can expand so you want to allow headspace for expansion. For pint containers that have a wide top opening you will allow half an inch of headspace. For quarts allow one inch of headspace. And then for your pint size containers that have a narrow top opening allow three fourths inch headspace for your quarts one and a half inches. Be sure that the syrup covers the fruit and it may be necessary that you put a small piece of parchment or wax paper on the tip of the fruit to keep the fruit in the syrup. So you would just wide that parchment or wax paper up and then put it into the container and to keep that fruit pushed down in the syrup. Freezing fruits with sugar. Most fruits need about one pound of sugar to four pounds prepared fruit or about two cups of sugar to 12 cups of fruit depending on the individual taste. When you're freezing cut strawberries, peaches, apples or even pears add the ascorbic acid or ascorbic acid mixture to the sugar to help prevent the fruit from darkening. Or you can add a fourth teaspoon of ascorbic acid to a fourth cup of water. Mix that well with about four cups of your prepared fruit and then add two thirds cup sugar. For your ascorbic acid mixture follow your manufacturer's directions. If the fruit is juicy the ascorbic acid or ascorbic acid mixture you can mix that with sugar and you do want to pack the fruit firmly to remove as much air from the container as possible because air does tend to dry out the food when it's frozen. You want to allow about half an inch of headspace for your sugar packs for pint or quart containers. Regardless of the food that you're going to freeze you want to use a moisture vapor proof freezer container. Remember moisture proof so the food does not dry out and vapor proof so odors will not penetrate the packaging material. There are other factors that are desirable too but the common freezer containers for fruits or freezer bags or rigid freezer containers and you want to check your freezer bags for leaks and you can do this by filling the bag with water and if you know if it leaks then it obviously has a hole in it. So check for leaks. As previously mentioned fruits may be packed in sugar syrup or with a sugar substitute but fruit can also be dry or tray packed. The method that you use should depend on the kind of fruit that you're using how you plan to use that fruit and then your personal preference of course. Two different kinds of packing methods are the dry pack and the tray pack. We'll talk about the dry pack first. Dry packing is good for small whole fruits like berries that make a good quality products when you freeze them without sugar. Simply pack the fruit into the freezer container and then fasten the lid or seal it securely and then freeze. With your tray pack a tray pack is a form of dry pack that makes the fruit easier to remove from the container. With the tray pack you can actually you actually freeze the fruit before you pack it into the freezer container. So to tray pack you want to spread a single layer of the prepared fruit on a baking sheet or a shallow tray and then you place it in the freezer and you don't want the pieces to touch each other so you know keep them spaced a little bit apart and when the fruit is frozen then you will pack it in the freezer containers and then quickly return it to the freezer before it can start to thaw. The fruit pieces will remain loose rather than freezing together and then you can remove the amount that you need from the container without defrosting the whole package. So if you want to sprinkle a little blueberries on your cereal or your yogurt for breakfast you can do so and then just seal the package of the remainder of blueberries back up and put them back in the freezer. Okay you do want to be sure that you package the fruit as soon as it is frozen to prevent freezer burn. Remember freezer burn is not going to make you have an unsafe product but it does you know makes you have a not as good of a quality product it doesn't taste as good with that freezer burn once it's freezer burned. Okay so when you label your containers there are some things that you need to be sure you put on your containers. First of all you do want to put the name of the product and I would write the name of the product and then if it was what form it was in if it was whole if it was you know diced if it was sliced or whatever then you also want to put the freezing date the date that you put the container into the freezer and then you also want to be sure that you follow manufacturer's directions when you're using rigid freezer containers. You can use glass jars for freezing but remember that they can break when food freezes it expands and this can cause the jar to break. So if you're using a standard canning jar with a standard size opening do not fill it quite to the shoulder of the jar. Standard pint canning jars with tapered sides can be filled to within half an inch of the top for your dry packs and three-fourths of an inch for those with liquid and then your quartz are going to need about an inch of headspace. You want to use new flat lids each time and scald them before you place them on the jar. A wax type carton usually cannot be sealed airtight. In addition the wax can crack at zero degrees and this is especially true of milk containers. Some of these are plastic coated but the lid is not going to fit airtight and the plastic coating is not moisture and vapor proof. Milk cartons are made to hold milk for about one week at refrigerator temperatures not food at zero degrees so do not use them in the freezer. And this would be even not just milk cartons but like sour cream containers that you had sour cream in you know butter that butter tubs cartons that you had butter in so those would not those would not be suitable for freezing. Okay you always want to freeze food as quickly as possible so that the cells do not break down. Broken cells make thawed food soft and flabby and the juices will seep out. You want to always place food in the coldest part of the freezer. If it's a chest type freezer and it does not have a special freezing compartment the sides and the bottom are going to be the coldest. In an upright freezer there are special freezing shelves and in some of the newer model freezers all the shelves are freezing shelves so you can put it in any of those. You also want to leave a small space between each package for fast freezing and then once it freezes then you can stack it close together or on top of each other or however. After your food is completely frozen which will be about 12 to 24 hours later you want to then pack your containers as close together as possible so you can stack them on top of each other you know but as close together as possible so you can make room in your freezer for the other things you want to to freeze. You want to be sure that you put all like fruit together so all your strawberries in a row all your peaches in another row and it's a good idea to keep a record of how many pints and how many quarts you store of each fruit. This way as you use the pack a package you can check it off your list so you will know exactly how many containers or how much food you have left in the freezer. All freezers should have a temperature of zero degrees or lower. The basket which is going to be the warmest part of your chest type freezer should be at least zero degrees or lower. In your upright freezers the thermometer should be placed on a non-freezing shelf. The temperature here again should be at least zero degrees or lower. All recent reliable research shows that food that is frozen and stored at temperatures above zero is not as good in flavor color texture and the food value is that which is frozen at zero degrees or below. So the colder the better is the rule of thumb here and you also want to remember that some of your freezers will come with a thermometer an air probe thermometer already in them and you may have to use your use care booklet and adjust the temperature and some of your freezers may even require a service man to do this for you but if your freezer doesn't have an air probe thermometer in it you can buy these at Walmart you can definitely order them online but you should be able to buy them at Walmart. So that's an idea too but it's very very important to know what temperature your freezer is at. And also when we talk about storage fruit lasts for for quality purposes it needs to be used within no longer than a year but eight to 12 months is how long fruit will keep in the freezer and be at the best quality. As far as food safety wise it can be kept longer than that but for best quality as I said eight to 12 months is the max. So what about thawing your food your fruit when it's thawed fruits are ready to be served thaw only enough for one meal at a time fruits that have been frozen will lose their freshness very quickly after they've been thawed the texture will soften and the flavor and color change berries that have been frozen tastes better when they still have some ice crystals left on them though the texture of peaches and similar fruits to that is better when they are still a little icy the flavor is improved by complete thawing so for best flavor and color you always want to leave the fruit in the unopened container while it's thawing you want to turn the package several times during thawing to keep the fruit coated with the syrup and to also help to to prevent it from darkening. On the refrigerator shelf it may take you as long as four to six hours to thaw a one pound package of fruit whereas at room temperature the time is shortened to one to two hours depending on the pack. However slow thawing in the refrigerator is going to give you a better product fruits that are packed with dry sugar tend to thaw more quickly than fruits that are packed in syrup so just remember for good quality frozen foods one step depends on another meet your food safety and quality team there is an agent that covers every county in the state of alabama to find the agent who covers your county find your county on the map and what set you were in then find the agent who covers that set listed on the right you can also find us on the web at www.aces.edu or on facebook at acesfoodsafety some pictures and material used in this powerpoint were taken from and based upon work supported by the cooperative state research education and extension service and the US department of agriculture