Too Many Fresh Picked Blueberries? Store the Summer in Your Freezer!

Our friend Susan doesn’t live too far away from us as the crow flies, but here on the ground, her place is actually, literally, on the other side of the mountain from us. She lives in the same town but we have to drive out of town and then cross over two town boundaries, returning into our town and then drive miles down a dirt road to reach her place. She lives in an old farm house and lucky for us, the previous owners surprised Pops with a gift of 50 blueberry bush trees. This was about 40 years ago and the bushes have grown enormous. Susan, being a generous Southern bred soul, is kind enough to invite friends over to pick the beautiful blue fruit each August. Hey, you don’t have to pull our ears, we have our baskets at the ready! So while our Westie runs around like crazy with Pete the Pug, diving in the farm pond and jumping through the brambles, we pick and pick (and truth be told – eat) until our thumbs are numb and our baskets are full.

 

 

Now What? We can’t possibly eat all of these berries right now and how many blueberry pancakes can one person eat in a week?  Luckily, blueberries are one of those fruits that freezes great.  I used the past season’s berries to complement my lunchtime vanilla yogurt well into the winter months.  Just a few simple tricks can help you preserve these blue gems so they’re ready anytime to need them for snacking, smoothie-making, or baking.

First, clean the berries thoroughly.  Make sure all the stems have been removed and any funky looking berries are tossed aside.  Or, in our case, into a bowl for the dog, who absolutely loves the things.  I find that washing the berries in small batches with lots of water gives me the extra visual room I need to inspect the berries quickly.  Sometimes just dumping them into a strainer for a rinse hides any extra foliage that may have accompanied the berries into the basket, so I prefer to give them plenty of room to float around.

 

Washing blueberries looking for stems, mushy fruit, bugs etc.

 

Once the berries are clean, let them drain thoroughly in a colander or on a towel on the counter, eliminating as much excess water as possible.  When dry(ish), lay the berries in a single layer in a pan or rimmed baking sheet and place it in the freezer for twenty minutes or so.  This step prevents the blueberries from clumping up into a giant frozen berry cluster.

 

Freeze berries for future use in a single layer. This prevents clumping. Transfer to single serving size plastic bags after freezing.

Once they’re hard enough so they don’t stick to each other, remove them from the pan by hand and place them into a quart sized plastic storage bag, and back into the freezer they go.  Even though we’ve got a ton of berries, storing them in smaller sized bags helps me get the portion size I need for a recipe without thawing and refreezing a large amount. Now you’re ready to enjoy a nibble of summer throughout the year!  Yum.