Using frozen fruit past it's usual date

rbaylis · Jul 9, 2015

When my mother passed I discovered she had been storing excess produced from the garden. Hardly have any dates and a lot exhibit freezer burn and have been discarded (that was mainly tomatoes and gooseberries). Because of the passage of time I know that they are all well past the 12 month advised limit fro storing frozen fruits and vegetables. I have blackcurrant, apple (cooking), blackberry and either sloes or damson - hard to tell until I defrost them.

The question is, will they still be ok for making wine? It's not as if the nutritional value is needed, just the colour and flavour so I'm hoping that they still will impart those attributes so long as they are not 'off'. If anything, I'm assuming that they will breakdown and given these up more easily having been frozen and then defrosted.

Any thoughts, please?

dralarms · Jul 9, 2015

Defrost and taste. If it taste fine use it, I would

BernardSmith · Jul 9, 2015

I agree. You have very little to lose and potentially a great deal to gain. I say , go for it!

cmason1957 · Jul 9, 2015

I see little in the way of downside to using them. I freeze all fruit, except for grapes prior to use.

rbaylis · Jul 9, 2015

Thanks for the replies. It did seem logical to try defrosting, do a smell test and then (cautiously) tasting them. But I didn't know if there was already conventional wisdom that said you definitely shouldn't try to make wine from anything that is known to be over a year in freeze. I suspect some of them might be a lot older! On the plus side, once made into a preserve the fruits of my mother's labours (pun intended) lasted well. I found some damson jam pushed so far back in a cupboard she must have forgotten it was there. It was dated 2009 and it tasted just fine. It had lost a little colour, which is something I think may happen with if I use old frozen fruit to make wine but I can always adjust for that. I also made some jam myself which was delicious, so this year I'm hoping for a bumper crop so I can do wine and jam

SBWs · Jul 9, 2015

When my Dad passed away, my sister cleaned out the freezer and canned goods in the cellar. She wanted to know if I wanted the frozen Blueberries Dad had picked, 5 years worth, and the concord grape juice my Mom had canned. I did the taste test and decided to make some wine. After it was done I gave my 2 Sisters and 4 Brothers a bottle to keep. I have a few bottles stored away. We opened a bottle and it didn't taste bad at all. Plan on opening another one New Years Eve when we all get together, that was my Mom's birthday.