The Easiest Way to Freeze Blueberries

Whether you've gone u-picking or got a great deal on blueberries, or you grow your own, you're likely wanting to know how to freeze blueberries. Here's the easiest way to do that so you can store up the extras for future use in smoothies, sauces, pudding, baked goods, or even delicious berry-snacking right out of the freezer bag.

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, 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 Blueberries 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 love the thought of dehydrating them in my faithful preservation companion, the Excalibur Dehydrator, I've never had good luck dehydrating berries.

If you want to preserve berries the right way, freezing them is the way to go, but it's important that you do it the right way.

If you instead put them all in a bag and freeze them, you'll end up with a big chunk of berries and possibly berry mush that you'll need a jack hammer to break apart.

Good for you that instead you can learn the best way to freeze blueberries.

Oh and by the way, you can see why we went blueberry picking (and why we go every year).
I just couldn't say “no” to this smile!

How To Use Frozen Blueberries:

• Make this Sugar-free Blueberry Syrup
• Serve in and on top of this Blueberry Chia Pudding
• Baked in or placed on top of Baked Oatmeal
• On top of Ice Cream (like Chocolate Avocado Ice Cream)
• Blended into a smoothie.
• On top of Coconut Milk Panna Cotta

More Ways to Preserve Your Garden, U-Pick, or CSA Harvest

• How to Freeze Tomatoes
• How to Freeze Cucumbers
• The Easiest Way to Preserve Herbs
• The Easiest Sun Dried Tomatoes
• Homemade Kale Chips
• How to Freeze Avocados
• How to Freeze Bananas

Here's how to freeze berries and how to store berries once they are frozen.

Have you ever frozen blueberries?  What's your favorite way to eat them?