How to Freeze Blueberries to Preserve Long Term Freshness

Most people know how to freeze blueberries by now, but if not here are some tricks which will help maintain your frozen fruit's quality for longer!

I would not consider myself a "prepper" based on the true sense of the word, but I do like to consider myself prepared!

For me, being prepared means a lot of things, but one of them is preserving and storing fruits and vegetables at the height of their freshness for the long, cold winter months.

Our Zone 3 climate, with barely 100 frost-free days is NOT conducive to growing crops beyond the summer months. For a family who loves summer freshness and flavor, this can be a real challenge. We've managed to overcome this problem by making a conscious effort in the summer months to "put up" as much produce as we can.

I was beyond excited this year to be able to take over 80 cups of blueberries from Field To Sealed, thanks to my Avid Armor vacuum sealer.

I used to be cool, and now, I get excited about filling the freezer with berries. Life happens fast! Ha!

Tips & Tricks

No. 1 --> If you're serious about being prepared, maximizing your harvest, and storing foods, invest in a vacuum sealer. Kevy and I have always had a vacuum sealer close at hand. This year, we upgraded to a chamber-style vacuum sealer from AVID ARMOR, and it's absolutely my favorite kitchen upgrade this year.

No. 2 --> Don't overthink this process. It's not a monstrous amount of work to freeze fresh blueberries, it's easy, and it's so worth it. I've even figured out a way to skip a step!

No. 3 --> Avoid washing the blueberries. This is counter-intuitive to everything you've ever been told, but trust me! Washing the blueberries removes the waxy coating, called the bloom. This coating is responsible for keeping the bad stuff out of blueberries, like pests and bacteria, while locking in juiciness. Washing the berries beforehand also creates a lot more work as you'll need to ensure they are all dry before freezing.

No. 4 --> I like to put 2 cups of berries per vacuum bag, this works well, I find, for most recipes that require blueberries, and if I'm using them for smoothies, I take them out of the freezer bag and transfer whatever I don't use to a freezer-friendly container! This is personal preference, pack as many, or as few as you like in your bag.

Key Ingredients

Blueberries: In an ideal world, I'd be storing only wild blueberries harvested from my sister's acreage, unfortunately, with the heatwave, the blueberry harvest was nil this year. Luckily I was able to find some fresh British Columbia blueberries for a great deal!

Choose brightly colored and firm berries with an intact waxy bloom. Avoid berries that are shriveled, dry-looking, or otherwise less than fresh.

How to Freeze Blueberries:

1. Before starting the freezing process, it's important to pick through your berries. My favorite way to do that is to turn them into a baking sheet, then they don't escape! Remove any bruised, moldy, or otherwise damaged fruit, these will lead to inferior results. Pick off any rogue stems and remnants of flower buds.
2. Do not wash blueberries at this time!
3. Measure out your blueberries and place them into your vacuum seal bag.
4. Place the unsealed bag in the freezer - keep it upright so they don't spill, and freeze them for 3-4 hours, or overnight.
5. Once the berries have been frozen solid, spread them flat in the bag and vacuum seal.
6. Label the bags with the contents and the date and return them to the freezer.

How to Defrost Frozen Blueberries:

There are 2 circumstances that you'll be using your blueberries: frozen, or thawed. Here's how I thaw frozen blueberries.

• Frozen: If you're using the berries frozen in a smoothie or in baking, simply slice open your bag, toss them into a fine-mesh strainer and give them a quick rinse under cold water. Jiggle vigorously to avoid them sticking together, then pop them right into your blender or muffin batter.
• Thawed: If you need to use the berries thawed, you'll need to rinse them while they are still frozen, this enables us to keep all the flavorful juice that will escape from the berries. Slice open the bag, toss them into a fine-mesh strainer and rinse under cold water, shake them well to remove all excess moisture, and turn them out into a bowl to thaw. If you're wanting to keep just the fruit or just the juice, leave the berries in the strainer and set it over a bowl to catch the juice and they'll be pre-separated.

Batch and Storage Information:

Batch:

This guide can be used for as many or as few blueberries as you'd like. I always go buck wild and store as many as I can get my hands on!

Storage:

You might be wondering how long do frozen blueberries last, and I'm here to tell you that following this guide will keep your vacuum-sealed frozen blueberries fresh for up to 2 years! Yes! They'll last that long.

The longevity of a vacuum-sealed package is beyond worth it, especially when crop production can be a concern. Some years, there's a bumper crop of wild blueberries, some years there's none to be found, so I always make sure to have a couple years worth!]

Blog Credit: https://www.cravethegood.com