Every summer season season from early June by means of August, a minimal of as shortly 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 an unbelievable pure berry farm merely down the freeway.)
I favor to get all of my selecting accomplished sooner than the heat of the day makes it unbearable.
I’ve this annoying conduct of being a pasty-white specific specific particular person, so the mere stage out of {photograph} voltaic and I flip right correct proper right into a steamed lobster.
Strawberries, pink and black currants, blackberries, gooseberries, and my private favorite – blueberries all end up coming dwelling 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 capable of take pleasure in 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 situations greater in the midst of winter everytime you make them alongside alongside together with your private or native berries.
These frozen grocery retailer berries don’t bear in mind, and the value for up to date berries in January is astronomical.
Everytime you concern all by 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 an impressive cheaper totally different, plus you get to resolve 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 useful blueberry rising info. It’s one topic to poke some bushes all by the flooring and hope for the right, and one completely totally different topic altogether to know what to do to ensure an exquisite yield. It’s an exquisite be taught; you’ll ought to try it out.
After getting a considerable quantity of blueberries, it often 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 make sure you may take pleasure in these tasty treats year-round.
Freezing blueberries is straightforward to do and requires no specific units earlier a sheet pan. Many berries with greater water content material materials supplies provides or thinner skins don’t freeze all that precisely 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 Mild 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 properly be comfy and barely mushy.
As shortly as you employ 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 would possibly assure no matter you’re making doesn’t end up being fully purple and should help the berries protect their selection whereas they put collectively dinner.
In actuality, in case you happen to want 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 totally different people mushy berries make for greater mead.
Okay, let’s freeze some blueberries.
Wash Your Berries
It’s essential to rinse your berries sooner than you freeze them. Washing them as shortly as they’ve thawed is form of unattainable as they are going to be pretty comfy. Berries rising nearer to the underside are normally dirty from rain splashing mud and dirt on them.
Rinse your berries precisely in chilly water. I favor to fill my sink with chilly water and offers them an exquisite swish sooner than scooping them out right correct proper right into a colander. Then I’ll give them one completely totally different good rinse with my sink sprayer.
Dry Your Berries
This subsequent step may be a really extraordinarily environment friendly, due to it’s what is going on on to ensure your berries gained’t stick collectively as shortly as they’re frozen. You’ll need to substantiate your berries are fully dry sooner than freezing them, or they might stick collectively in an infinite frozen mass.
To dry the berries, I put down various kitchen towels on my counter or desk and gently unfold the berries out right correct proper right into a single layer. I attempt to substantiate they’ve a considerable quantity of room and good airflow, so all of them dry precisely.
Now, go do one situation else for an hour or so whereas they dry. It’s summertime; there’s often one situation that should be accomplished, acceptable?
Freeze Your Blueberries
As shortly because of the berries are fully dry, gently unfold them out on a sheet pan. Be sure that the blueberries are in a single layer. You presumably can cram pretty different on there. Place the sheet pan all by 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 final container destined for the freezer. Since they aren’t caught collectively in frozen clumps, likelihood is excessive you’ll retailer them in a plastic tub, a freezer bag, or my preferred methodology, a vacuum seal bag.
A phrase about vacuum sealing
In case your vacuum sealer has a light-weight setting, it is doable it is doable you will need to make use of that. In a single different case, the berries might very properly be sealed pretty tightly all by the bag. This isn’t primarily a problem 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-cost, an unbelievable sealer, and I favor it pretty a bit I’ve bought different for family members 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, a whole bag for a pie, no matter you need with out having to try to interrupt off somewhat bit little little bit of icy blueberry mash.
I need to make use of those frozen blueberries as delicious edible ice cubes and should 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 love blueberry pancakes.
Get the well-known Rural Sprout publication delivered to your inbox.
Along with Sunday musings from our editor, Tracey, along with “What’s Up Wednesday” our roundup of what’s in season and new article updates and alerts.
