Too many ripe all at once…
Which means we need to freeze much of our blueberries. We will be in supply for a while, so to keep the picked ones edible, we freeze them. We cannot eat them that fast 🙂 we have so many. It’s best to freeze right after picking. Blueberries freezing method is very specific, but simple. First, we wash and remove twigs, leaves, and other undesirables. Allow your berries to dry for a bit before going on to the next step. If you pour water onto your trays along with your berries, the water will make your berries will stick together.
Line a baking sheet with wax paper or freezer paper. I use freezer paper; it not only prevents the berries from sticking to the lining, but it also is stiff, which is easier to pour the berries into freezer containers later. Lining the baking sheet is not completely necessary, but I find it’s helpful for when you pour them into containers, once they’re frozen.
Fill the baking sheet with a single layer of berries. Shake the baking sheet slightly to spread them evenly. Several large ones will usually hang out on top of the rest. Just move them to an open spot, or eat them 🙂 I also remove any unripe ones. In my pic, you can see a couple reddish ones. Those are not ripe and will be tart. Blueberries, when ripe, lose all they’re reddish appearance. In the sun, they will look all black.When you have a burst of ripe ones, it takes for every to pick them all when you are too choosy. So we have many that were not ripe yet in our colanders.
We then place the trays in the freezer. It doesn’t take long to freeze them. You don’t want them to stay unprotected in the freezer for too long , because they may get freezer burn, so plan accordingly.
Once they are frozen completely, pour them into freezer containers, freezer bags, or use your handy dandy food saver. You’ll want to do this fairly quickly and handle them as little as possible, so they stay frozen. Be careful when pouring them into the containers or freezer bags–they are like little marbles–a lot of marbles — they can and will roll all over the place!
This method keeps the blueberries from sticking together, which would make using them later pretty much impossible, unless you are making smoothies or mush.
It’s not such a bad thing to have too many ripe all at once. We just have to make sure we aren’t too busy to take care of our blueberries. Hope you all are enjoying your summer as much as we are!
~Erin