How to properly store plums: where and under what conditions

Categories: How to store

In autumn, many summer residents, enjoying the rich harvest of plums, worry about their quality preservation throughout the winter period. Knowing a few important points regarding this matter, everyone will be able to enjoy the fruit for a long time.

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Before storing plums, it is necessary to assess the degree of ripeness of the fruits and know what variety they belong to. The duration of the product’s usable state depends on this. For example, not quite ripe plums should not be sent to a cold room. In such conditions they will begin to wither and rot.

Several important nuances of storing plums

In order to enjoy the juicy taste of plums for as long as possible, you must follow some important points.

  1. Unripe plums should be stored in an ordinary room. To ripen them faster, you can pack the fruits in paper bags for a while.
  2. If the plums are standing in the room and ripening in this way, then they need to be sent to the refrigeration device only when they reach the required degree of ripeness.
  3. Plums should not be stored in direct sunlight. Otherwise, the fruit will become unsuitable for consumption within one day.
  4. Ripe plums often have a coating resembling dust. This is not a deviation from the norm.
  5. You should not choose a plastic bag to save plums. The fruits will not be able to breathe in it. If there is no other saving option, then such packaging should not be tied tightly.
  6. To store large plums in the refrigerator, it is good to use the cardboard containers in which eggs are sold.
  7. High air humidity (not higher than 90%) can cause fruit to spoil earlier than expected.
  8. The best storage temperature for plums is considered to be from 5 to 6 °C; if the values ​​are below these limits, the flesh of the product may darken.
  9. Plums can be stored for quite a long time (2-3 weeks). But every day their taste and aroma will no longer be so rich.
  10. If you plan to put the fruits in the freezer, then you need to remove the seeds from them before freezing.
  11. A large number of plums can be stored on the balcony (in a dark corner) or basement by placing (placing a maximum of 3-4 layers in each) in wooden boxes covered with paper. The ball should also be separated from the ball by a sheet of paper.

You can extend the useful life of hard plums by performing a very simple manipulation. First, you need to let the fruits reach ripeness at room temperature, then you need to keep them for 15 hours at 0 ° C in a refrigeration device, and only then send them to a place whose temperature will be from 2 to 5 ° C. In this case, the plums will remain of high quality for 3 weeks.

Shelf life of plums

At temperatures from +20 to +25 °C, the plum crop will remain fresh for a couple of days. During this time, unripe fruits will become softer and juicier. If the plums do not begin to deteriorate under such temperature conditions, then they can be sent to the refrigerator and thus extend their shelf life for some more time.

By placing ripe plums in the refrigerator in the fruit compartment, you will be able to preserve their preservation from 10 days to 2 weeks.There are varieties of plums that can be kept fresh in a refrigerator for 3 weeks.

Plums can be stored in the freezer (in a tray or special bag) for almost 1 year. These fruits cannot be re-frozen.

In a cellar or a place where there are the same conditions, the plum harvest can be stored for several weeks. From time to time, the fruits need to be inspected and sorted if necessary. Do not forget that plums do not like sharp fluctuations in temperature. Dry plums are suitable for consumption for several months.

The process of storing plums itself does not imply anything complicated, it is only important not to neglect any of the above rules.


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