Freezing Blueberries {Best Way to Preserve Quality & Flavor}

Today we are talking about freezing blueberries. Oh sweet blueberries.

There is just something about blueberries that tells me summer is here. I wanted to take the kids to a U-pick blueberry farm this year, but I was gone out of town during the time our local area had them ready to pick. So I went looking for blueberries at our local farmers market instead. Lucky for me, there were still some local farmers selling blueberries.   I couldn’t help myself but to buy a huge box of them. We ate up a few right away and the rest I decided to freeze so I could enjoy them all winter long. Freezing blueberries is great for snacking on  (I love to eat them little blue babies frozen right out of the bag) or I add them to my smoothies.

There are lots of ways of freezing blueberries; some say to wash them, some say to not wash. Some say to lay out on cookie sheets, freeze and then add to bags. But I read from my favorite magazine (Cook’s Illustrated) about their tests to find which method best preserved fresh blueberries.  They said the best way is to gently wash the berries, pat dry, add some sugar or syrup, then freeze. So I tried out this method and it worked! It worked beautifully. The sugar helps to keep them all from sticking together.  If you don’t like the idea of adding sugar, don’t worry. Just before you use them just give them a quick rinse off with water,and you still have beautifully preserved blueberries.

Here is the best method to freezing blueberries.

Step 1:  Gently wash the blueberries, getting any stems or leaves out.

Step 2: Gently pat dry the blueberries.

Step 3: Add some sugar to the blueberries. Cooks Illustrated says for every 2 cups of blueberries use 1/3 cup of sugar.

Step 4: Mix them all up gently.

Step 5: Add your blueberries to quart sized freezer bags and freeze them.

These blueberries should last up to 6 months in your freezer, maybe even longer. Freezing blueberries every year makes me feel a little bit of that summer love even in those cold winter months.

Have you frozen blueberries before? What do you make with them?

About Karrie

Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...