Every summer season season from early June via 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 a unbelievable pure berry farm merely down the freeway.)
I favor to get all of my selecting achieved forward of the heat of the day makes it unbearable.
I’ve this annoying conduct of being a pasty-white explicit particular explicit individual, 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 private 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 capable of have the benefit of native berries all 12 months prolonged.
Blueberries are the house favorite, so we uncover your self selecting spherical 20 quarts or extra over the blueberry season. Smoothies, pancakes, muffins, scones and even blueberry syrup all type 1,000,000 situations greater within the midst of winter when you make them alongside alongside together with your personal or native berries.
These frozen grocery retailer berries don’t have in mind, and the value for up to date berries in January is astronomical.
Everytime you concern all by way 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 personal blueberries is a superb cheaper completely different, plus you get to resolve on the variability. This season, I purchased to type 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 way of the flooring and hope for the appropriate, and one completely completely different problem altogether to know what to do to verify a beautiful yield. It’s a beautiful be taught; you’ll should try it out.
After getting various 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 a superb methodology to recollect to can have the benefit of these tasty treats year-round.
Freezing blueberries is simple to do and requires no explicit units earlier a sheet pan. Many berries with larger 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 additional, freeze fantastically. Granted, they might nonetheless be comfy when thawed.
Why Are My Berries Gentle 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 wonderful whereas the berries are frozen, nonetheless after they thaw, now the cells of the berry have misplaced their structural integrity, so the berry might probably be comfy and barely mushy.
As shortly as you make the most of frozen blueberries for baking or elements like pancakes, it’s most interesting in order so as in order so as to add the blueberries whereas they’re nonetheless frozen. This may assure irrespective of you’re making doesn’t end up being fully purple and might help the berries defend their selection whereas they put collectively dinner.
In actuality, if you happen to occur to happen to wish to make a batch of blueberry basil mead, I terribly advocate that you simply 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 important to rinse your berries forward of you freeze them. Washing them as shortly as they’ve thawed is kind of unattainable as they will be pretty comfy. Berries rising nearer to the underside are normally dirty from rain splashing mud and dirt on them.
Rinse your berries appropriately in chilly water. I favor to fill my sink with chilly water and supplies them a beautiful swish forward of scooping them out right correct proper right into a colander. Then I’ll give them one completely completely different good rinse with my sink sprayer.
Dry Your Berries
This subsequent step may be a extraordinarily extraordinarily environment friendly, due to it’s what is going on on to verify your berries gained’t stick collectively as shortly as they’re frozen. You’ll wish to substantiate your berries are fully dry forward of freezing them, or they might stick collectively in an unlimited frozen mass.
To dry the berries, I put down fairly just a few 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 various room and good airflow, so all of them dry appropriately.
Now, go do one concern else for an hour or so whereas they dry. It’s summertime; there’s often one concern that have to be achieved, applicable?
Freeze Your Blueberries
As shortly on account of the berries are fully dry, gently unfold them out on a sheet pan. Be certain that the blueberries are in a single layer. You presumably can cram pretty diversified on there. Place the sheet pan all by way 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 closing 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 hottest approach, a vacuum seal bag.
A phrase about vacuum sealing
In case your vacuum sealer has a lightweight setting, it is doable chances are high you will wish to make use of that. In a single different case, the berries might probably be sealed pretty tightly all by way of the bag. This isn’t primarily an issue whereas frozen, however it makes for added mushy berries as they thaw. Give your berries room to breathe.
Appropriate correct proper right here’s a hyperlink to the vacuum sealer I personal; it’s low price, a unbelievable sealer, and I want it pretty a bit I’ve bought diversified for relations as objects.
And that’s that – easy frozen blueberries.
Now when you get a hankering for blueberries, you’ll merely have the flexibleness to grab a handful for snacking, two cups for muffins, a complete bag for a pie, irrespective of you need with out having to aim to interrupt off a bit little little bit of icy blueberry mash.
I wish to make use of those frozen blueberries as delicious edible ice cubes and might normally seize a handful to plop in my switchel or lemonade.
Come January, you’ll actually respect the difficulty you place into selecting, cleaning and freezing. Hmm, now I would like blueberry pancakes.
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