Every summer time 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 selecting accomplished earlier than the heat of the day makes it unbearable.
I’ve this annoying conduct of being a pasty-white explicit express explicit 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 non-public favorite – blueberries all end up coming dwelling 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 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 circumstances larger in the midst of winter when you make them alongside collectively together with your private or native berries.
These frozen grocery retailer berries don’t take into consideration, and the price for up to date berries in January is astronomical.
In the event 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 private blueberries is a wonderful cheaper totally different, plus you get to find out 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 information. It’s one concern to poke some bushes all by way of the flooring and hope for the fitting, and one utterly totally different concern altogether to know what to do to ensure an outstanding yield. It’s an outstanding be taught; you’ll ought to try it out.
After getting an extreme quantity of blueberries, it repeatedly 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 ensure to can have the benefit of these tasty treats year-round.
Freezing blueberries is easy to do and requires no explicit gadgets earlier a sheet pan. Many berries with larger 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 cozy when thawed.
Why Are My Berries Gentle and Squishy As shortly as I Thaw Them?
In the event you freeze blueberries, the water inside them freezes into tiny ice crystals. These crystals penetrate the cell partitions of the berries. That’s superb whereas the berries are frozen, nonetheless after they thaw, now the cells of the berry have misplaced their structural integrity, so the berry could very nicely be cozy and barely mushy.
As shortly as you employ frozen blueberries for baking or components like pancakes, it’s most interesting 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 utterly purple and may help the berries protect their sort whereas they put collectively dinner.
In actuality, within the occasion you happen to want 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 totally different people mushy berries make for larger mead.
Okay, let’s freeze some blueberries.
Wash Your Berries
It’s essential to rinse your berries earlier than you freeze them. Washing them as shortly as they’ve thawed is kind of unattainable as they are going to be pretty cozy. Berries rising nearer to the underside are often dirty from rain splashing mud and filth on them.
Rinse your berries precisely in chilly water. I favor to fill my sink with chilly water and gives them an outstanding swish earlier than scooping them out appropriate correct proper right into a colander. Then I’ll give them one utterly totally 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 ensure your berries gained’t stick collectively as shortly as they’re frozen. You’ll need to confirm your berries are utterly dry earlier than freezing them, or they might stick collectively in an enormous 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 confirm they’ve an extreme 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 repeatedly one situation that have to be accomplished, proper?
Freeze Your Blueberries
As shortly on account of the berries are utterly dry, gently unfold them out on a sheet pan. Make sure that the blueberries are in a single layer. You presumably can cram pretty assorted 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, likelihood is excessive you’ll retailer them in a plastic tub, a freezer bag, or my preferred method, a vacuum seal bag.
A phrase about vacuum sealing
In case your vacuum sealer has a lightweight setting, it is doable you can need to make use of that. In a single different case, the berries could very nicely be sealed pretty tightly all by way of the bag. This isn’t primarily an issue whereas frozen, nonetheless it makes for added 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 value, an superior sealer, and I want it pretty a bit I’ve bought assorted for relations as objects.
And that’s that – easy frozen blueberries.
Now when you get a hankering for blueberries, you’ll merely have the pliability to grab a handful for snacking, two cups for muffins, a complete bag for a pie, no matter you need with out having to aim to interrupt off considerably little little bit of icy blueberry mash.
I need to make use of those frozen blueberries as delicious edible ice cubes and may often seize a handful to plop in my switchel or lemonade.
Come January, you’ll actually respect the effort you place into selecting, cleaning and freezing. Hmm, now I would love blueberry pancakes.
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