Every summer, the kids and I patiently wait until the middle of July. It’s when we head down to the local you-pick farm and pick pounds upon pounds of fresh blueberries for use throughout the winter. Learning how to freeze fresh blueberries is one of the easiest food preservation techniques! There’s minimal prep and tools that are needed, and what we’re left with is fresh local blueberries all winter long.
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What You’ll Need:
~ Blueberries – Fresh picked at a you-pick farm (but from the store would also work)
~ Cookie Sheet* or Jumbo Muffin Tray*
~ Gallon or Quart Freezer Bags*
How To Freeze Fresh Blueberries:
Whether you buy blueberries from the store or head to your local you-pick farm, you will want to inspect them. Be sure to pull out any ones that are moldy or going bad. And gently remove the stems from the berries. If they are wet, you will also want them to dry for a little bit.
Then transfer your dry blueberries to a large cookie sheet, making sure they are in a single layer. Gently place the cookie sheet in the freezer. Playing blueberry pick-up isn’t fun!
Let your fresh blueberries sit in the freezer overnight. Once they are completely frozen, you can toss them into freezer bags that are labelled with the date and place them back into the freezer. It’s really that simple!
If you have more berries than you have cookie sheets, I’ve also frozen blueberries in a jumbo muffin tin. The process is the same, but now they’re in smaller, approximately half-cup portions.
Do I have to wash The Blueberries first?
No, you don’t have to wash blueberries that you get at a you-pick farm.
Since blueberries grow on a bush and aren’t in contact with the ground, there’s usually no dirt to rinse off like with strawberries. Fresh blueberries are also encased in a natural waxy coating called bloom. The bloom helps seal in the moisture and acts as a barrier against bacteria and insects.
So if you’re washing the fresh-picked berries before you freeze them, you’re washing off their natural protectant barrier. The other problem is that if you’re rinsing the berries before freezing them, you’ll have to spend even more time drying them than if you just tossed them into the freezer fresh-picked!
How To Use Frozen Blueberries:
Before using your berries for eating, make sure you rinse them off. For cooking, using them straight from frozen works perfectly fine.
I like to toss frozen blueberries in pancake batter, muffin batter, and banana bread. I also like to add frozen blueberries to oatmeal after adding the boiling water. This helps to thaw the blueberries and cool the oatmeal down at the same time. In the rare instance that we need to use thawed, I place a half cup of blueberries in a cup of warm water for about five minutes. Then rinse and pat dry.
I’ve also been known to freeze blueberries when I’m inundated with all the other harvests in the summer. They are the simplest produce to freeze, and it allows me to devote the time to processing everything else. Once things have calmed down, I use the frozen blueberries for blueberry jam and blueberry syrup.
How Long Do Frozen Blueberries Last in the freezer?
Frozen blueberries will last about 6 months in the freezer, but shouldn’t be kept longer than 10 months.
From my experience with three kids, I can never keep them that long!
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