Summer is making its way towards us and it is time to start thinking about what will be growing and what to do with the harvest. Berry season is right around the corner and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy picking berries. There is something about fresh fruit that screams summer and although I’m not a big fruit person, I enjoy frozen berries in my protein shakes and love a good jam or jelly to spread on a bagel with cream cheese. We add berries to baking recipes regularly and often have leftovers in the fridge, or more than we can handle. Besides making jams and canning them, I regularly freeze berries to keep them good to eat much longer than in the fridge.

Want to add your berry surplus to your own freezer? It’s pretty simple! No matter what you decide to do with your berries, it is always important to wash them. Now berries are pretty fragile and can be prone to turning into jelly right in your hands, so be gentle and rinse through your berries. Pick out any stems, dirt or leaves that stick to these globes of juiciness. I try to let them dry a bit or pat them with a paper towel before placing on a tray. (That water will freeze too!)

When most of the water has dried simply place on a baking sheet. I don’t have a full freezer upstairs and don’t always want to walk downstairs for simple tasks like this, so I use a small tray to place leftover berries on. I flash freeze the berries so that they don’t fall apart or smash together in their respective containers. Gently spread your berries out over a baking tray and place in the freezer for an hour or two. They will harden enough to place in containers, jars or bags that you will be able to store more efficiently. *Note* if I was picking a large amount of berries and freezing in batches, I would definitely use full sheet pans and march them downstairs to our full size freezers.

How do we store berries? Great question. We have 2 ways generally that we store our berries. The first way is in simple snack baggies. This is usually how I store our selection. When the berries have already been flash frozen, I will keep a one cup measuring cup close by and measure a cup into those cute little snack baggies. I then place all of my baggies into a basket or bin and date it before placing that bin in the freezer. This allows me to pull a serving size at a time, all berries are uniform quantities and I know how long they have been in the freezer. The other way is to store in plastic containers that we reused. Lunchmeat containers are constantly used for little things like that around here. I love to place a cup of spinach and a cup of berries in a container and freeze. I don’t go this route regularly, but it makes my protein shake breakfast simple and ready to go. A little work on day makes a week ahead more efficient and easier which is so so nice.

So that’s it, not bad right?! It takes just a moment to rinse some berries, pat dry and place in the freezer. Just another moment to place in a container and store. Then you can enjoy berries all year round! Which is just awesome! Never let purchased, or picked, berries go to waste again! We hope you enjoyed reading this DIY trick to stock your freezer with healthy sweetness. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback. As always, thank you for reading and joining us on this journey.

Simply,
Beth