Every summer season season from early June by way of August, a minimal of as quickly as per week, you’ll uncover me up early, berry basket in hand, heading to our native pick-your-own berry farm. (We’re lucky ample to have a terrific pure berry farm merely down the freeway.)
I favor to get all of my selecting accomplished forward of the heat of the day makes it unbearable.
I’ve this annoying conduct of being a pasty-white specific particular particular person, so the mere stage out of image voltaic and I flip right correct proper right into a steamed lobster.
Strawberries, pink and black currants, blackberries, gooseberries, and my personal favorite – blueberries all end up coming residence with me. Some get made into jam immediately, others go right correct proper right into a batch of mead, and nonetheless others I freeze so we’re in a position to get pleasure from native berries all 12 months prolonged.
Blueberries are the house favorite, so we uncover your self selecting spherical 20 quarts or further over the blueberry season. Smoothies, pancakes, muffins, scones and even blueberry syrup all kind 1,000,000 circumstances greater within the midst of winter everytime you make them alongside alongside along with your private or native berries.
These frozen grocery retailer berries don’t take into consideration, and the price for modern berries in January is astronomical.
Everytime you concern all by means of the carbon worth of getting these tiny cartons of berries to your grocery retailer and the ecological costs of consuming out of season, these flavorless berries aren’t worth it.
So, we put the work in now.
In actuality, rising your private blueberries is a superb cheaper completely different, plus you get to find out on the variability. This season, I purchased to kind the Chandler variety of blueberriesand I’m hooked!
To get buckets of blueberries 12 months after 12 months, I’ve put collectively this helpful blueberry rising info. It’s one problem to poke some bushes all by means of the flooring and hope for the proper, and one utterly completely different problem altogether to know what to do to ensure a beautiful yield. It’s a beautiful be taught; you’ll should attempt it out.
After getting an extreme quantity of blueberries, it commonly helps to have some blueberry recipe inspiration when deciding what to do with all of them.
Wherever you end up getting your blueberries, freezing them is an excellent methodology to recollect to can get pleasure from these tasty treats year-round.
Freezing blueberries is straightforward to do and requires no specific gadgets earlier a sheet pan. Many berries with increased water content material materials supplies provides or thinner skins don’t freeze all that appropriately and end up a mushy mess even when frozen. Blueberries, then as quickly as further, freeze fantastically. Granted, they might nonetheless be comfy when thawed.
Why Are My Berries Delicate and Squishy As shortly as I Thaw Them?
Everytime you freeze blueberries, the water inside them freezes into tiny ice crystals. These crystals penetrate the cell partitions of the berries. That’s great whereas the berries are frozen, nonetheless after they thaw, now the cells of the berry have misplaced their structural integrity, so the berry might very nicely be comfy and barely mushy.
As shortly as you utilize frozen blueberries for baking or components like pancakes, it’s best in order so as in order so as to add the blueberries whereas they’re nonetheless frozen. This may assure no matter you’re making doesn’t end up being utterly purple and will help the berries defend their kind whereas they put collectively dinner.
In actuality, for many who happen to wish to make a batch of blueberry basil mead, I terribly advocate that you just simply merely freeze your blueberries and thaw them first. Doing so helps launch the juices, and completely different people mushy berries make for greater mead.
Okay, let’s freeze some blueberries.
Wash Your Berries
It’s essential to rinse your berries forward of you freeze them. Washing them as quickly as they’ve thawed is kind of unattainable as they are going to be pretty comfy. Berries rising nearer to the underside are normally dirty from rain splashing mud and filth on them.
Rinse your berries appropriately in chilly water. I favor to fill my sink with chilly water and gives them a beautiful swish forward of scooping them out right correct proper right into a colander. Then I’ll give them one utterly completely different good rinse with my sink sprayer.
Dry Your Berries
This subsequent step is also a extraordinarily extraordinarily environment friendly, on account of it’s what is going on on to ensure your berries gained’t stick collectively as quickly as they’re frozen. You’ll need to confirm your berries are utterly dry forward of freezing them, or they might stick collectively in an infinite frozen mass.
To dry the berries, I put down loads of kitchen towels on my counter or desk and gently unfold the berries out right correct proper right into a single layer. I attempt to confirm they’ve an extreme quantity of room and good airflow, so all of them dry appropriately.
Now, go do one problem else for an hour or so whereas they dry. It’s summertime; there’s commonly one problem that have to be accomplished, acceptable?
Freeze Your Blueberries
As quickly on account of the berries are utterly dry, gently unfold them out on a sheet pan. Ensure that the blueberries are in a single layer. You presumably can cram pretty assorted on there. Place the sheet pan all by means of the freezer for two hours or until the berries are frozen sturdy.
Bundle deal Your Blueberries
Working shortly, in order that they don’t begin to thaw or perspire, swap the berries to their remaining container destined for the freezer. Since they aren’t caught collectively in frozen clumps, chances are high excessive you’ll retailer them in a plastic tub, a freezer bag, or my most popular method, a vacuum seal bag.
A phrase about vacuum sealing
In case your vacuum sealer has a lightweight setting, it is doable you may need to make use of that. In a single different case, the berries might very nicely be sealed pretty tightly all by means of the bag. This isn’t primarily an issue whereas frozen, nonetheless it makes for further mushy berries as they thaw. Give your berries room to breathe.
Right correct proper right here’s a hyperlink to the vacuum sealer I private; it’s low price, a terrific sealer, and I select it pretty a bit I’ve bought assorted for relations as objects.
And that’s that – easy frozen blueberries.
Now everytime you get a hankering for blueberries, you’ll merely have the pliability to grab a handful for snacking, two cups for muffins, an entire bag for a pie, no matter you need with out having to aim to interrupt off a little bit of little little bit of icy blueberry mash.
I need to make use of those frozen blueberries as delicious edible ice cubes and will normally seize a handful to plop in my switchel or lemonade.
Come January, you’ll really respect the effort you place into selecting, cleaning and freezing. Hmm, now I would really like blueberry pancakes.
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