I absolutely love strawberry season. I love driving out and picking my own berries, working in the straw and the sun until my baskets are overflowing with ripe delicious strawberries. I head home, happily munching on the sweetness and thinking about all of the things I’ll be making with my fresh strawberries. Obviously, strawberry shortcake tops the list. But, my mind starts whirring with exciting new recipes to try and I damn near wear out Pinterest looking for some. And then…I don’t make anything.
It’s been a couple of days and the strawberries are still sitting there on my counter. I pour a bowl for myself throughout the day and my husband plucks one straight from the basket, refusing to wash any that he pops right into his mouth. But, even with all the snacking, there are still So.Many.Berries. And, it’s hot as can be out. I could make cookies on the BBQ (see tutorial here), but I’m too tired and don’t want to even mix the bowl, let alone cook them. So, I do what I always do when I end up at home with baskets full of delicious strawberries: I freeze them for a colder time.
Step 1. Get your berries. This is the best part: picking your berries, or if you aren’t a fan of picking, then buying them in bulk when they taste like they should and not over-processed.
Step 2. Wash those berries! Even if the farm you’ve gotten the strawberries from doesn’t use any pesticides, your hands still have touched them, bugs have definitely landed on them, and if it’s rained in the last little while, mud could be stuck to some of them.
Step 3. Cut your strawberries in halves, or for larger ones, in quarters.
Step 4. Scatter on a cookie sheet and pop into the freezer for about 30 minutes or until they are frozen/nearly frozen.
Step 5. Place freezer bags, labeling if you wish.
That’s it! Freezing strawberries is super easy. If you don’t have time to freeze the strawberries before placing into bags (because sometimes you end up cutting strawberries at 9:30pm and just want to snuggle into bed with a book) that’s okay, too! That just means you’ll end up with a big chunk of berries that need to be fully defrosted instead of berries that you can pluck right from the bag as long as they don’t thaw in any way. In that case you’ll just end up with a big delicious chunk of strawberries.
