Strawberry season is one of my favorite times of year.
Well, my birthday is my favorite time of year, but that’s neither here nor there. However, when my birthday does roll around I like cookbooks and food, just in case you’re curious. But as much as I know y’all want to, I’m not talk about my birthday today. I’m talking about freezing strawberries!
So, when I was growing up my family had a huge strawberry patch! We would never be able to use all the juicy strawberries before they went bad. So my family would let people from the community come and pick their own berries. But there were still so many strawberries left over! That’s how we got started freezing strawberries!
My mom was freezing strawberries for as long as I can remember. She got her method from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. If you freeze or preserve at all, you need this book or a similar one to help you master the art.
Having strawberries in the freezer is so awesome. They are ready and waiting for you to use in your favorite recipes, smoothies, cobblers, jams – you name it! But it’s important that you do it properly, which means when you’re freezing strawberries, you always want to sort them first. The Ball Blue Book method recommends that you divide your berries into 3 groups. I’ll call them good, better, and best. Because let’s be real, even a smushy strawberry is a good thing!
The first group consists of the best berries that are perfect, unblemished and pretty firm. Man, aren’t they beautiful? I could take a picture. Oh wait, I did. HA!
The second group consists of berries that are still really nice, but might have a blemish or two. They didn’t use Clearasil or Noxzema, but they still have a nice face though! We’re going to cut these babies up.
The third group is my favorite, the strawberries to eat! YUM! This would be all the berries with large spots or ones that are way too soft. Once they’ve been washed you need to eat them within 24 hours or they’ll start to get really icky.
Freezing Strawberries
strawberries
sugar, optional
- Fill your sink with water and gently add your berries. Wash each one individually if they are really dirty, like mine typically are. Berries from the patch are typically dirtier than those you find in the store.
- Separate the berries into the 3 groups I mentioned above.
Best Berries: Group 1
- Hull the strawberries (remove the green tops) and dry the strawberries on a clean dish towel or paper towels.
- Place all the best strawberries in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Flash freeze the strawberries for 20-30 minutes, until partially frozen.
- Very quickly transfer from the cookie sheet to labeled, freezer bags, jars or other air-tight containers. Flash freezing strawberries prevents them from sticking together in the bag.
- Freeze 6-12 months.
Better Berries: Group 2
- Hull the strawberries (remove the green tops) and dry the strawberries on a clean dish towel or paper towels.
- Slice the strawberries into half or thirds.
- Toss the sliced berries with sugar. Ball recommends adding 1 part sugar to 6 parts berries. That’s a little too sweet for my tastes. I only add just 1/4-1/2 cup or so. The sugar is to keep the sliced berries from getting nasty in the freezer.
- Let the sugar dissolve for about 10 minutes and then stir gently. Don’t beat them to death, ok?
- Carefully transfer the berries and sugary syrup into your freezer safe containers or bags.
- Freeze 6-12 months.
Good Berries: Group 3
- Do not hull these strawberries! Just wash and then lay on clean towels or paper towels to dry.
- These strawberries are ready for you to eat immediately.
- As you eat them, remove the green tops and cut off any bad spots.
- They will go bad quickly, but you can store in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
Have you figured out how to freeze your sliced strawberries with a sugar sub for THM? Would xylitol or or homemade Truvia freeze? I might just freeze my sliced ones plain in smaller serving sizes and sweeten as I use them. Helpful post, thanks for sharing it again for the newbies.
So far this year I haven’t used any sweetener. I’ve just frozen them as-is…and in small enough pieces that they work for Cottage Berry Whip. Ha, ha! 🙂
Cannot view the pictures on this post, which helps visualize the steps tremendously! I did refresh a couple times. I’d love to see the steps, as we have a tiny strawberry patch, but would love to see it expanded.
Thanks!
Thanks for the heads up. Problem fixed!