Thursday, July 15, 2010

Preserving Blueberries

I came across a sweet deal. Well actually my sister-in-law did and called me to share. Our local Fareway had blueberries for $1.00 pint last week. Now I know that blueberries are rated 5th on the top 12 dirtiest foods but since blueberries are rated a "super food" I am going to try to ignore the fact that what I bought was not organic.

A dollar a pint is an unbelievably good deal for blueberries. So I bought 15 pints. Yes, maybe overkill but my family loves blueberries. We ate a couple pints and I have frozen the rest to use later. These will be great in the winter months too!

Here is how I freeze blueberries. First wash and gently dry off the berries.

Instead of just tossing them into a bag I lay them all flat on cookie sheets. This prevents them from sticking together. I did this with my strawberries a few months back. Then you can pull out whatever desired amount you want without having to thaw then entire bag. You can lay them directly on the cookie sheet or you can place them on a towel. This will help prevent sticking to the pan. Freeze for a couple hours. Place desired amount of blueberries into a ziplock bag, label and place in the freezer. I choose to place 2 cups of berries in each bag.

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday at Little bit of Spain in Iowa.

6 comments:

  1. I do this all the time...and yes, I took advantage of the Fareway deal too :) They are GREAT to have on hand!

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  2. Thank you for this! I noticed that Dahl's has them for 99 cents (or at least they did the other day). I was wondering about buying a bunch and freezing them. Looks like I'll be heading to Dahl's tomorrow to see if they're still on sale!

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  3. Thanks for linking to Simple LIves Thursday Sara! I just harvested 15 lbs of blueberries from the Berry Patch Farm. I'll be doing this tomorrow :D

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  4. I found our local blueberries aren't organic, but they aren't sprayed with anything once they start to bloom, so I figure that's better than non-organic at the store. We picked a couple pounds the other day and I froze them just like this and I think I'll pick a few more pounds this weekend--I regret not picking more strawberries and freezing, but I just recently got in the healthy habit of homemade smoothies for or with breakfast! Better late than never, eh?

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  5. Looks delicious. That is how I freeze blueberries too. We are going picking this week, hopefully, can't wait for some fresh berries.

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  6. Ladies, if you can't get organic, or can't find an organic "sale", fill a glass bowl with water and put in 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar. Soak any fruit or veggies for 5 minutes and this will remove any chemical that is on the outside. This won't take care of anything that has been absorbed, but is a great start to eating closer to organic when organic just isn't available! Hope this helps!

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