How to Freeze Berries and other Summer Fruits

Howdy Folks!!

I am finally back from Montana and my brother’s wedding. I meant to check in but got busy with the family. A wedding post will be going viral soon, promise.

I wanted to give my promised post on freezing berries and other fruits to keep through the winter months. If you are afraid to pick lots of berries, peaches, apricots, etc. for fear of them going bad, don’t be!! Freezing is super easy and you can use the fruit for smoothies, cookies, muffins, breads, pies or to add to pancakes and breakfasts.

I recently picked a bunch of berries and decided to freeze most of them. I also love freezing mango, peaches, and apricots.

My tips for freezing:

1. Always wash the fruit first – you don’t want to freeze any fruits before washing them. This gets rid of any dirt and bacteria. You don’t know how many hands handled your fruit. 
2. After washing the fruit, whether it be berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) or peaches and apricots let them dry out – I recommended laying the fruit flat and spread apart on paper towels. I usually line a baking sheet with paper towels. I would let them sit in the strainer for a bit to drain all the water and then dump onto paper towels.                                                                                                 ***with peaches and apricots you can keep the skin on when freezing, unless you don’t like the skin. I wash the peaches, dry and cut into wedges or quarters and follow the same freezing process. With mangoes and kiwi I would remove the skin, because mango skin isn’t edible and frozen kiwi skin isn’t fun. Then cut into pieces. 
3. Once fruits are completely dry, line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper–  It’s important to make sure all produce is dry so they don’t get freezer burnt and don’t stick together. I usually pant dry with a paper towel to make sure. Once dry, Place the berries on the lined baking sheet, spread apart  and slide into freezer for about 1 hour uncovered. This step is important, because it lets the fruit freeze separated, so when added to a plastic bag all the fruit doesn’t crumple up. 
4. Once frozen, remove fruit from freezer and transfer to plastic bag or other freezer safe container – Make sure to tightly closer the plastic bag or container. Can freeze for up to 6 months. I always mark my containers or freezer bags.

See, I told you it doesn’t take long and isn’t hard. Now you can pick as much fruit as you want and freeze it to use for later use. Having your own frozen berries and fruits on hand is cheaper than buying frozen fruits, and you know what went into the freezing process.

Frozen pumpkin and zucchini is also great to have on hand, but that’s for a future post.

Happy Freezing!!