How To Freeze Blueberries

A Hillbilly Housewife reader mentioned to me the other day that a neighbor gave her a huge box of blueberries…much more than she and her family could eat at one time. She was asking about how to freeze those blueberries.

Since my in-laws have several huge blueberry bushes in their yard, we’ve had the same problem almost every year. And it is a good problem to have. The easiest way to preserve all those juicy berries is indeed to freeze them and it is very simple.

Start by sorting your blueberries. Discard any berries that have gone bad and put any overripe ones in a separate bowl to be eaten right away. Wash the remaining blueberries and then gently pat them dry. I use paper towels for this since the juice from the berries will stain any cloth permanently.

Pour the berries on a baking sheet and stick them in the freezer. After about an hour or so, they should be pretty frozen and you can pour them into a freezer bag. Be sure to label the bag with the name of the fruit and a date so you know how old your berries are down the road.

Patting the berries dry and freezing them on a cookie sheet first keeps them from clumping and freezing together. This will make using them throughout the year much easier.

 

Now that you have a few bags of yummy frozen blueberries, what do you do with them? You can thaw them in the fridge overnight and use in any of your favorite blueberry recipes. You can also add the frozen blueberries to your favorite muffin, pancake and waffle recipe. By the time they are done baking, the blueberries will be completely thawed.

My personal favorite is to use them in yogurt smoothies. Just add a handful of the frozen berries to your blender along with some yogurt and a splash of milk. You can also add some other fruit along with the blueberries. Try half a banana in there, some other berries or even some frozen sliced peaches or frozen mango…Yum!

What’s your favorite blueberry recipe? Share your favorites as a comment below.