Every year readers ask how they can eat fresh, local produce in the dead of winter when their farmers’ markets are closed until May or June. Well, this new blog series entitled “Preserving Seasonal Foods” is your answer. I’ve found that many aspects of eating real food require one to plan ahead, and this is no exception. If you want local blueberries in your granola cereal in December then it’s up to you to freeze enough in the summer to last until the next berry season. This is definitely an area of “real food eating” where I recommend to start small…just pick a handful of items to work on preserving this summer and then try a few new ones each year. And if you really get into it you could even continue into the winter months by preserving leafy greens and other cold weather produce as well.
We started small last year ourselves and blueberries were the first items we tackled. Freezing the berries was actually so easy that I was surprised I’d put it off as long as I did. And the best part was how good our frozen, local blueberries tasted in the middle of December! I honestly couldn’t believe how good they were. Our stash of local, frozen berries was FAR superior to the frozen, organic, packaged blueberries from the store, and likely cheaper as well. The only non-frozen organic blueberries we can get here in the winter are from Chile, which of course come at an expense on both our environment (due to the distance they’ve traveled) and our wallet. So I am going to share some of the things I’ve learned so far, as well as advice from some of my wonderfully experienced readers (via Facebook of course!).
Freezing vs. Canning
First and foremost I want to make sure everyone is aware that freezing retains more of the food’s nutrients than canning. I normally freeze foods myself, but just recently canned some jam for the very first time. I happened to find the whole canning process to be both fun and rewarding (not to mention producing some great little gifts) so I definitely plan to continue doing it regardless. I will probably just do more freezing than canning to hopefully obtain the right balance. Plus if our electricity goes out due to another infamous North Carolina “ice storm” I won’t be left high and dry with everything spoiling in our freezer!
4 Ways to Preserve Fresh Berries for the Winter
- Freeze unwashed berries in batches on a baking sheet and once they are frozen transfer them to a large zip lock back or other freezer-proof container. Wash frozen berries with a quick rinse before adding to things like cereal, smoothies, plain yogurt, pancakes, or homemade muffins. Frozen berries can also be used to make recipes like jams and pie. (Note: I have frozen berries that had already been washed, and I thought the outcome was fine.)
- Make homemade jam that you either freeze or can. Be sure to check out my “How to Can Some Jam” tutorial for a berry-honey jam recipe that doesn’t call for refined sugar or pectin.
- Dehydrate berries whole or puree them first to make homemade fruit leathers (similar to fruit roll ups). You can use either a dedicated dehydrator or a regular oven on a very low temperature. The dehydrated whole berries can be eaten as a snack or added to foods like granola, oatmeal, or yogurt.
- Make complete dishes with fresh berries and then freeze them. Some examples are blueberry muffins, raspberry pancakes, mixed berry smoothies, berry sauce (for yogurt), and blackberry pie. For things like pancakes you can use the baking sheet freezer method mentioned in #1 or you can freeze them all together at one time between sheets of waxed paper.
If you have anything else to add about preserving fresh berries please share in the comments below!
Whole-Wheat Toaster Pastries (a.k.a. Pop Tarts!)
Hy guys please help me to make to preserve seasonal food record book
You can also make jam or jelly with previously frozen fruit.
We freeze blueberries right in the plastic pint containers, unwashed and wrapped with plastic wrap. This was the advise from the packing plant here in south NJ, the blueberry capital of the universe! Never had clumping or freezer burn and usually keep them until next season.
Time to add another method: freeze drying! That is what I’ll be doing as lot of this year.
My son is prediabetic. I love to make jam but do not know what to use in place of sugar in order to make jam that he can eat. Can you help me with this?Thank you!!
Hi there. You could just make an all fruit jam. It is this simple: http://www.superhealthykids.com/a-poor-man-rsquo-s-jam-for-english-muffins/. I love using fresh fruit that is almost over-ripe but heave done it with frozen, too. Here is Lisa’s canning recipe but it does use honey: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/05/10/how-to-can-some-jam-a-simple-method-without-pectin/.
We use a well-known vacuum sealing system for freezing berries, veggies, and all kinds of foods that we don’t want to waste. So for now, I buy double the amount of berries I need, freeze/seal half, and eat the other half fresh. I’ve done this for a couple of years and the berries are perfectly preserved when I want them come this winter.
We froze farmers market strawberries last summer (the ones I didn’t turn into jam) and my son chopped them up to put in his yogurt through much of the winter.
Why do you avoid pectin?
Hi there. Lisa will use natural pectins from apples peel but does not use it in its processed form.
After I prepare the jam how can I store it in ziploc freezer bags.
Hi. We use mason jars but Ziplocs will work, too.
Do you take the tops off of the strawberries before you freeze them?
Yep, remove the green.
I’m curious to know why you wouldn’t wash the berries prior to freezing them. This might seem like a rookie question as well, but when you do rinse them frozen, does all the dirt etc. come off?
Hi there. Washing before freezing can make the skin tough. A quick rinse before using does the trick. :)
I always wash my blueberries before freezing. I feel like they get so much cleaner. Just be sure to dry them before freezing so they don’t come out mushy.
Try going to farmers markets and buying bulk near the end of the day. The prices will tend to be better.
Curious, how much do your local organic strawberries and blueberries cost? During strawberry season we still pay about $4.00 at the cheapest for 16oz of organic strawberries. For blueberries it costs about $5 for 6oz. At those prices it’s just not financially feasible to “stock up” my freezer for 7 or 8 months of the year. :(
I think you’re referring to grocery store produce. We are talking farmers market or pick your own berries where you can get 10lbs of strawberries for 25$ gve or take. This way you get a huge amount of produce at one time for pretty cheap to preserve it.
The pick your own strawberries are even more expensive, especially for organic. We don’t have pick your own blueberries. I’ll have to check out the farmer’s market.
Found it on there! :)
Can I make jelly with out pectin and a little sugar. Or a little pectin and no sugar.?
Hi Barbara. This recipe uses no pectin and honey in the place of sugar: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/05/10/how-to-can-some-jam-a-simple-method-without-pectin/. ~Amy
If you wash berries before freezing, be sure to dry them on a paper or (clean) cloth towel. Otherwise you will be adding liquid to whatever you are making. After drying them, I freeze them on a tray and put the frozen berries in a plastic bag to store them. That way they don’t stick together and you can remove a few at a time.