F&F member Bumble Lush shows us how to freeze strawberries.

After our fun trip to the strawberry patch last weekend, we came home with a bit of picker’s remorse.  How could we have picked eighteen pounds of strawberries?!? I had wanted a few pounds so that I could have farm-fresh strawberries over the winter months, as I’ve had it with the store-bought kind. It doesn’t matter which store I go to or whether they’re organic or conventional; the strawberries I’ve been buying at the grocery store recently have tasted bitter and they grow moldy by the next day. I vowed not to buy out-of-season strawberries that are shipped from the other side of the country anymore.

I got home and sorted the berries. Some of the berries at the bottom of the flats were bruised from the weight of the others, so we set those aside to snack on. The rest I decided to freeze.

We’ve never frozen fresh fruit before, so I searched the internet for proper techniques, and predictably, found some conflicting directions. Do I leave the caps on or remove them before freezing? In the end, I decided to follow these directions which say to hull/remove the green caps on strawberries before freezing. I chose this option because it seems more convenient–I’ll do all the work upfront and when I’m ready to use the berries, they’ll be ready to go after I defrost them.

How to freeze strawberries:
1. Wash strawberries carefully. Strawberries are delicate.They bruise and squish easily, so take care not to poke the flesh when washing.

2. Let the berries drain (about 10-15 minutes) and remove the caps (aka, hull the berries). I’ve seen fancy hulling gadgets in the stores that look like tweezers, but I just use a plain old paring knife to pop the stem out. Again, take care not to pierce the flesh, or you’ll have to eat that juicy berry right then and there.

3. Once strawberries are drained, spread them on a baking sheet or pan. Berries should be in one layer and not overlapping to prevent them from sticking together in the freezer. Note 1: Use whatever flat dish you have. I have a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer, and the freezer door wouldn’t close because the baking sheets stuck out. I had to improvise. I used glass Pyrex dishes and pie pans. Note 2: Put wax paper down on any glass surface before you spread the strawberries out or they will stick very firmly to the glass and it will be difficult to get them off.

4. Freeze the strawberries. The directions I followed said to let the berries freeze overnight, but mine were frozen solid after about four hours.

5. Bag the strawberries and return them to the freezer. Remove the strawberries from the pans and place in freezer bags or any other container used for holding frozen food. We filled five one-gallon size Ziplock freezer bags. Ordinarily I would label and date the bags, but I didn’t do that here because I can tell they’re strawberries and I froze them all over Memorial Day weekend. If I do this again before this original batch runs out, of course I would write a date on the bag.

My friend sliced up the strawberries before freezing them. I didn’t do that, but I don’t see why you couldn’t. Now that I’ve done this once, I feel comfortable with the process and I think these techniques could work for other berries. There’s a blueberry farm I like to visit…

I keep a journal of my veggie garden at Bumble Lush.