One of the best ways to save money on whole foods is to buy them in bulk when you can get good savings, and store them for the future. I've written about How to Store Nuts and Seeds, The Easiest Way to Preserve Herbs, The Easiest Way to Freeze Tomatoes, How to Store Prepared Beans, and How to Store Leafy Greens, but today I'm sharing how to store one of our favorite foods--how to freeze blueberries.
I guess this post could also be called "How to Freeze Berries Without Having Them End Up in One Big Clump!"
or "The Easiest Way to Preserve Blueberries." Because I've tried other ways and this is just well--simply the easiest.
We love blueberries. And though we are all on sugar-free and even high sugar fruit-free diets due to candida, blueberries are fairly low in sugar and so this year we decided we just had to go picking.
We live in Michigan, one of the great states to live in if you like blueberries and we even have a large wild raspberry bush in our backyard. Well, it really is in our neighbor's yard but it cascades into ours and it's a house that gets rented out to students and the owner is fine with us claiming the berries as our own.
We are all too happy to oblige :-).
Over the past 5 years or so we have made it a tradition to go to a U-pick farm and pick too many a lot of blueberries. And sometimes raspberries, but they don't transport as well.
There is a great organic blueberry farm that has the most delectable berries, but this year, the crazy weather made it so that they weren't offering the U-pick option. So we had to go to our old standby--a farm that isn't organic but at least doesn't spray.
In years past, this farm had recordings of birds to scare other birds away, but this year, as we were driving up to the farm, we saw two huge birds fly away. I suspect that they were falcons, seeing as this seems to be a new technique that berry farmers use to scare smaller birds away from their crops. Interesting, huh?
Anyway, we had limited time this year due to a ton of rain and a busy schedule, but in 1.5 hours of picking time, we managed to pick about 17 pounds of berries. (And we ate a few as well :-).)
So--now it's time to do something with 'dem berries. And though I'd love the thought of dehydrating them in my faithful preservation companion, the Excalibur Dehydrator (click here for the best savings on an Excalibur), I didn't have great luck with dehydrating cranberries, and really prefer how nicely berries freeze.
That is, if you freeze berries the right way.
Put them all in a bag and freeze them and you might end up with a big chunk of berry mush that you'll need a jack hammer to break apart.
How to use frozen blueberries (and other berries):
- My Dairy Free Berry Mousse
- Baked in to Baked Oatmeal / Oatmeal Cake
- On top of Ice Cream (like my Homemade Coconut Milk Ice Cream)
- Blended into a Smoothie. Use whatever milk or dairy free alternative you like (like Homemade Almond Milk or Homemade Coconut Milk), add frozen fruits, nuts or seeds and sweetener and you have a wonderful pick me up healthy treat or breakfast! Add protein powder or some of this healthy gelatin (I love Great Lakes Brand--no antibiotics / no hormones and pasture-fed) for added protein.
More Ways to Preserve Your Garden, U-Pick, or CSA Harvest:
Here's how to freeze berries and how to store berries once they are frozen.
How to Freeze Blueberries
1. Wash blueberries and drain.
2. Dry berries gently with a towel (not necessary, but makes the blueberries completely ice free).
2. Place blueberries in a single layer on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.
3. Place in freezer until frozen, about 7 hours, or overnight.
4. Transfer berries to a sturdy plastic bag. Squeeze most of the air out and store in freezer. Those Twixit Clips that you see on the bag below are one of my most favorite kitchen tools. I use them for all my plastic bag storage needs.
5. Frozen berries are best used within 6 months, but we've eaten some out of our deep freeze after a lot longer time than that! (Freezer tip: If you store food that you won't be using for a long time in a manual defrost freezer, they will last longer. More on that in another post sometime :-).)
6. Enjoy!
Have you ever frozen blueberries? What's your favorite way to eat them?
Frozen fruit in bite size pieces is God's summer time Skittle treat to us. We just love to nibble on a few pieces, it cools you off and satisfies a sweet tooth.
We are with you on that! In fact, off to get some right now! Interesting screen name..... :).
I have a nephew who is Downs and has Seliacs so we have been trying more natural ways to get our food and grow our own so we don't have to worry about additives this was very helpful, thanks Adrienne
So glad to hear it! I hope to have more similar tips and recipes up soon. Bless you in your care for him! I wish I had a green thumb, but I do not. Maybe I can work on that! Do you grow blueberries? We have 6 small bushes but they aren't doing much.
I've had my blueberries in the freezer a little over a year and when I tried them they were "dried out" somewhat. How can I plump them up so they will not be tough to ear or bake with?
You could try rehydrating them? I wonder if it's b/c of freezer damage?
I usually purchase about 50 lbs of organic blueberries every year. I have an island in my kitchen. I put large old towels on my island. Wash the berries and dump a colander or 2 after washed on the towels. I let them drat a bit (wash more) and roll them gently on the towels to help them dry. I scoop the berries up, put into containers and freeze. I never have trouble with them sticking in a clump. Last me all year.
Wow, 12 paragraphs before you get to the subject......................
Actually it was 13. But who's counting?
And some were really short. Would you have preferred more :)?
We have a blueberry farm out here in Tacoma Washington that's free for everyone to pick all summer long, with over 4,000 trees bushes and my daughter and I just started going there for the 1st time, The farmer left it to the city after he died and well they just couldn't see digging up all those bushes so they have it open for the public. We are so thankful. And thank you for the freezer tip.
You are blessed!!!!! I'm hoping to plant bushes here soon.
This is a terrific way to freeze berries, and they keep so well--long as I remember to rotate out the oldest stuff, anyway. Meh. I don't have a deep freeze, so we can't freeze as much or as long, but it does let us take advantage of the freshest berries of the season for a few weeks longer.
Thanks for the tip on the Twixit clips, which I had not seen before. Checking them out now!
You'll LOVE the clips. Take care!
I've never tried freezing blueberries, and I'm so glad such a clear and concise tutorial to freeze them is available. I LOVE blueberries and like to have them ready for fall and winter pies and pancakes. I'm on my way downstairs to get the freezing process started. Thank you! I've got to check out those Twixits. I'm tired of chasing down clothespins!!!
Thanks!! Those clothespins just don't work - for me, at least!
Which organic/no-spray U-Pick farms are you referring to!? I am also in Michigan and haven't been able to find one (although I do recall finding an organic farm that didn't offer U-pick last year.. lol probably the same one you're talking about...) Fresh Michigan blueberries are the best! 🙂
Post Farms is apparently no spray. Looks like the organic blueberry farm we used to go to is closed now. Very sad. Probably the same one you were looking at - Irvine.
Awesome. That's only a half hour away. Thanks! 🙂 I also just found an organic one in Lyons called Kline Krest that lists all sorts of fun produce on their site. Can't wait to go picking!
Thanks! I checked them out :)!