Field to Frozen: Summer Berries are a Seasonal Favorite!

What is your favorite thing about summer? Warm weather?... Fishing?... Baseball?... Gardening?...

Well one of our favorite things are garden fresh berries that are at their peak for harvesting and can be used for making just about any summer side dish or dessert. If you have your own home garden you probably know what its like to have an abundant amount of fruit that you don't want to go bad. The good news is, we want to share with you how we like to store our summer berries so we can enjoy them year round. 

The hard part about storing berries is that when ripe, they can be extremely fragile, especially raspberries. The easiest thing to do is throw them in a baggie or plastic food container, but storing them this way long term can rob them of their freshness and flavor. Air and moisture can seep back into the bag or container and will cause freezer burn and dehydration.

The solution: Vacuum seal them! Vacuum sealing? Won't that completely smash my berries? No, we'll show you how.

• The first thing you'll want to do is make sure your berries are washed and dried. 

• Put your raspberries, blueberries and/or blackberries into a freezer safe bowl or other container. To keep the berries from smashing during the vacuum sealing process, we will freeze them long enough to harden them. This can be done in as little as 2 hours, but are safe up to 24 hours before freezer burn will set in. We learned that putting them on a cookie sheet so that they are on a single layer helps them freeze faster than when stacked into a bowl. Either way you prefer will work!

Spread berries on a single layer for faster freezing.

• Next, place them into the freezer for about 2 hours, but not longer than 24 hours. After 24 hours of exposure to air, freezer burn can begin to set in.  

When you are ready to vacuum seal them, confirm they have hardened and then they are ready for vacuum sealing without damaging them.

• Place your berries into your food vacuum bags. This is a great time to portion them out into serving sizes or specific amounts based on how you intend to use them.  

• Now it's go time! Vacuum seal them before they begin to thaw.

• Once they have been vacuum sealed, all you have to do is pop them in the freezer and they will stay fresh for several years.

Even if you don't have your own garden, this can still be a great option to save money. When berries are in peak season the prices tend to be the lowest of the year. Whether you shop at your local farmer's market or grocery store, stock up and buy them in bulk and then vacuum package them for off season when they are more expensive. We stopped into our local Safeway grocery store and found they were having a special on all Driscoll's berries. Raspberries were only $.99 each, blueberries were on sale for $2.99 each and strawberries were 2/$5.00. 

TIP: If you are a daily fruit smoothie drinker, portion your bags with the amount of fruit you need to make each smoothie and it makes them super convenient to make. 

Do you have any other tips or ideas for vacuum sealing your fresh berries? We'd love to hear about them! 

Read our next 'Field to Frozen' blog: GREEN BEANS!!