I guess I am in a very fruity mode these days… but I indeed mentioned that one of my new year’s resolutions were to eat more fruit and vegetables. I am taking you along for the ride…
I love making myself fruit smoothies in the mornings. Particularly, I LOOOOOVE adding fresh berries to them. Unfortunately, in a way, is that berries are pretty expensive… I am paying these days between $7 and $8 for a pound of strawberries. I guess they’re not in season in the US and they’re bringing them from God-knows-where. And there’s little I can do to reduce my carbon footprint in regards to this… because we don’t grow berries in Puerto Rico, I either buy them imported, frozen, or not eat them at all.
What I want to share with you is about freezing berries… this is a trick I learned, again, from my good friend Martha Stewart (she does not know how good friends we are…) With the price I pay for berries, I can’t eat them all at once and they’re prone to spoil fast. To avoid this when I purchase these beautiful strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or any other berry… is to freeze them individually on a baking sheet and then store them.
I wash the berries, remove any stems, dry them as well as I can and place them without touching on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet on the freezer overnight and then store the berries in a freezer plastic storage bag. Never freeze them all clumped up in a bag, because then you’ll have a tough time separating them if you need just a small amount at a time.
This way, I have great tasting berries anytime.
Hope this helps…
KarmaFree Cooking 
I love Clementines! They’re sweet and succulent.
Hi Madelyn,
I don’t know how practical this would be, but on an episode of ‘Good Eats’ a few months ago, Alton Brown used dry ice to freeze strawberries. It’s supposed to freeze the berries so quickly that they don’t turn to mush when you defrost them.
Hi! I am so glad you shared this!
It is still strawberry season in FL right now, and I have been enjoying them very much from the farmer’s market. So, this week, I bought extra to freeze using this method and also to make a few batches of strawberry sauce that i will also freeze, to use later for topping pancakes and desserts. I soooo love strawberry season!
OMG! I just, and I mean just, returned from a u-pick farm. I have 14 1/4 pounds of strawberries! They looked so good I couldn’t stop picking! And, at $1.05 a pound! Thanks for the freezing tip, I plant to freeze a bunch to make jam later!