My family LOVES blueberries! We eat them by the handful and I love to cook with them. Blueberry muffins are my favorite and my husband is the king of the blueberry pancake. Right now, during the summer, blueberries are in season and pretty cheap. I bought a case at our local store last week for only $23.50. That’s $1.96 per pint for 12 pints. Over the winter months they’ll easily be $4.99 a pint so this is a great deal, especially if you can make it last!
Freezing blueberries now while they’re cheap and in-season is so easy to do and you’ll be so glad you did when winter rolls around!
How to Freeze Blueberries: 4 Easy Steps
- Dump a pint of blueberries onto a baking sheet. Sort through them to remove any that are mushy or bad, and pick off any stems you see. Scatter them so they’re in a single layer.
- Put the baking sheet in the freezer until the blueberries are frozen solid. I leave them in for about 3 hours.
- Remove the blueberries from the freezer and put in a quart-sized freezer bag. Be sure to label your bag with the contents and date.
- Squeeze as much air as you can out of the bag. Return the bag to the freezer for storage. Repeat with each of the other pints you bought.
That’s it!
A couple of notes:
- I don’t wash my blueberries before I freeze them. I think this makes the skin tougher and it can make them mushy when you defrost them. If you want to, rinse them off AFTER you defrost them when you’re ready to use them.
- I find frozen berries are best for cooking and baking with as opposed to just eating by the handful. Nothing beats fresh fruit for snacking, but frozen berries are perfect for adding to your yogurt, cereal, pancakes, breads and more.
- I freeze and store my blueberries by the pint. You can definitely add more to a freezer bag if you’d like. I just like to be able to defrost small quantities at a time and use them all up before I defrost anymore. When you freeze them, however, you want to make sure you have only a single layer of blueberries on your tray so they don’t freeze in a clump. That means freezing just one pint at a time.
- I suggest trying to use up your berries within 6-8 months. That will get you through the winter until they’re cheap again next summer!
Do you can or freeze anything to preserve it and make it stretch through the winter months?
I never thought of this before. I’d love to start freezing more foods, especially when they’re on sale and can be bought in bulk.
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I freeze my berries the same way. I don’t wash my berries before I freeze them. I usually pick the berries out in the field right into my freezer containers. Makes it so much easier to get them into the freezer when I get home. I do this with my marionberries, raspberries and blueberries. Now I’m hungry for some. 🙂
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