Every summer season season from early June by way 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 superior pure berry farm merely down the freeway.)
I favor to get all of my deciding on achieved sooner than the heat of the day makes it unbearable.
I’ve this annoying conduct of being a pasty-white explicit particular particular person, so the mere diploma out of {photograph} voltaic and I flip appropriate 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 appropriate correct proper right into a batch of mead, and nonetheless others I freeze so we’re in a position to profit from native berries all 12 months prolonged.
Blueberries are the house favorite, so we uncover your self deciding on spherical 20 quarts or further over the blueberry season. Smoothies, pancakes, muffins, scones and even blueberry syrup all type 1,000,000 circumstances larger within the midst of winter when you make them alongside alongside along with your personal or native berries.
These frozen grocery retailer berries don’t ponder, and the price for up to date 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.
Actually, rising your personal blueberries is an excellent 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 useful blueberry rising data. It’s one concern to poke some bushes all by means of the flooring and hope for the right, and one fully completely different concern altogether to know what to do to ensure an excellent yield. It’s an excellent be taught; you’ll should try 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 a superb methodology to make certain you may profit from these tasty treats year-round.
Freezing blueberries is simple to do and requires no explicit units earlier a sheet pan. Many berries with greater 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 may nonetheless be cozy 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 fantastic 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 cozy and barely mushy.
As shortly as you employ frozen blueberries for baking or elements like pancakes, it’s biggest 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 should help the berries protect their type whereas they put collectively dinner.
Actually, do you have to 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 completely different people mushy berries make for larger mead.
Okay, let’s freeze some blueberries.
Wash Your Berries
It’s important 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 cozy. Berries rising nearer to the underside are often 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 an excellent swish sooner than scooping them out appropriate correct proper right into a colander. Then I’ll give them one fully completely different good rinse with my sink sprayer.
Dry Your Berries
This subsequent step may be a extraordinarily extraordinarily environment friendly, on account of 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 may stick collectively in an infinite frozen mass.
To dry the berries, I put down a wide range of kitchen towels on my counter or desk and gently unfold the berries out appropriate correct proper right into a single layer. I attempt to substantiate 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 must be achieved, proper?
Freeze Your Blueberries
As shortly because of the berries are fully dry, gently unfold them out on a sheet pan. Make sure that the blueberries are in a single layer. You presumably can cram pretty quite a few 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 final container destined for the freezer. Since they aren’t caught collectively in frozen clumps, chances are high excessive chances are 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 light-weight setting, it is doable it is potential you will need to make use of that. In a single different case, the berries might probably be sealed pretty tightly all by means of the bag. This isn’t primarily a difficulty whereas frozen, nonetheless it makes for further 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-cost, an superior sealer, and I need it pretty a bit I’ve bought quite a few 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 try to interrupt off a bit little little bit of icy blueberry mash.
I need to make use of those frozen blueberries as delicious edible ice cubes and should often seize a handful to plop in my switchel or lemonade.
Come January, you’ll actually respect the difficulty you place into deciding on, cleaning and freezing. Hmm, now I would love blueberry pancakes.
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