How to freeze strawberries
One thing I realized halfway through the winter was that I did not nearly save enough berries to make it through. With local strawberries showing up in my garden and in the farmers market this seemed like a perfect time to get an early start this year.
Freezing strawberries is much like freezing other berries strawberries are just as easy with just a few simple steps:
- 1. Quickly wash and gently dry strawberries with a towel
- 2. Cut of crowns (optional but much easier to do now than when frozen)
- 3. Place strawberries upside-down on wax paper on cookie sheet
- 4. Put strawberries in freezer for 24 hours
- 5. Dump frozen strawberries into freezer bag and use Poor Man’s Vacuum Pack*
- With these simple steps you can have plenty of strawberries for making smoothies or strawberry shortcake this summer/winter. This process can scale from many flats of berries or just a handful extra from your garden. Eat what you want fresh, freeze the rest.
- * Poor Man’s Vacuum Pack: Close ZipLoc bag with only enough space to fit in a drinking straw. Suck out air with drinking straw and quickly close the bag.
Related posts:
- How to freeze berries
- How to freeze herbs
- Why are strawberries called strawberries?
- Strawberries in the garden
- Updated time-lapse video of strawberries growing in growbox
Tags: preserving, strawberry plant
June 26th, 2010 at 6:10 PM
What an interesting post!
I love the idea of the Poor Man’s Vacuum Pack … I can definitely think of umpteen veggies / fruits to try it out on.
June 27th, 2010 at 3:14 AM
Yummy!.. My strawberries exploded this year.. I have already canned 9 half pints of preserves… and have loads in the freezer.
I think I may try dehydrating some too… for ‘trail mix”. I can see from my patio window there are more to pick today, so I will let you know how they turn out.
June 27th, 2010 at 9:11 AM
Perfect timing! Since last week, I’ve made strawberry jam and I’ve dried strawberries. Next up, freezing.
June 27th, 2010 at 1:22 PM
With the strawberries from our garden came back the love for this fruit.
June 27th, 2010 at 5:01 PM
What a great idea! Thanks for the tip. I love the poor man’s vac too!
June 28th, 2010 at 8:56 AM
Another trick if you are finding large ice crystals affecting the texture of the thawed product is to refrigerate the berries and then put them in a cooler with dried ice. By freezing them as fast as possible you get smaller ice crystals.
June 28th, 2010 at 10:38 AM
I am also enjoying the great yields from this years harvest. Just have to keep up with them, normally my oldest daughter makes sure none go to waste, though this year it may be a challenge for her.
June 29th, 2010 at 7:09 AM
I wish I had found this post earlier! I froze some strawberries (store bought, I’m afraid) in a container and ended up with a quart-sized solid mess of berries. I had to break them apart by hand (not easy!) to use in my smoothie. I will definitely try this method next time! BTW, you have a really nice blog here.
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:53 PM
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July 3rd, 2010 at 2:42 AM
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July 28th, 2010 at 6:55 AM
Great advice. The hard part for me would be leaving some to freeze. I generally eat them all as soon as I get them home. lol!