The Best Way to Freeze Strawberries and Enjoy Them Year Around

There is nothing like juicy, summer, fresh strawberries from the garden! When there’s an abundance growing that’s the time to preserve strawberries for the winter is by simply freezing them. I’ll share with you the best way to freeze strawberries so you can enjoy them year around too!

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Freezing Fresh Strawberries for Year Around

I love fresh strawberries! Growing up my mom would take us to her uncle’s strawberry farm and we’d all pick up to 40 gallons of strawberries for the winter! Can you tell, it was a favourite in for us?! As a result I got a lot of experience how to freeze fresh strawberries from a young age.

As a child I loved preserving strawberries! Not only was there a lot of snacking, it also meant our family could enjoy strawberries all year long! And who could say no to that?

If you also want to be preserving strawberries longer, simply freezing them is an easy and versitle way to start!

What is the best way to freeze strawberries?

My favourite way is to freeze some strawberries sliced in sandwich ziplock bags. Then freeze the rest of the strawberries whole (stems removed of course) in large ziplock bags.

Should you freeze strawberries whole or sliced?

Both! It depends on a what you’d like, here are a few factors to consider:

Reasons to freeze strawberries whole:

• It will take up more freezer space, if this isn’t an issue go for it.
• It’s so much faster to process and freeze strawberries whole!
• It’s easier to take out only a few berries at a time if you freeze them whole as they don’t stick together.
• This makes it easier for adding a few strawberries onto hot cereal or on granola or with yogurt or when making a smoothie.

Reasons to freeze strawberries sliced:

• If you have less freezer space, then chopped is best as more berries can fit into a bag this way.
• It’s nice having sliced berries for certain recipes that you’d want the berries to be sliced for, such as pancake topping, strawberry shortcake, pie, cobbler.
• A downfall is it will take more time to process the strawberries this way.
• Because of their own juices they will freeze into a solid block, so freeze sliced strawberries in smaller portions. This doesn’t matter depending what you want to use your berries for.
• Another downfall is even though you can use them for recipes you’d want only a few strawberries (on hot cereal, granola, smoothies, etc.), you’ll have to make sure to let the berries thaw a bit before being able to use them.

Is it best to be freezing strawberries with or without sugar?

I never freeze fresh strawberries with sugar. When they are picked fresh from a U-pick or your garden, the taste is so delicious I don’t find they need any sweetness added.

Even though strawberries have a natural slight tartness to them, I find it doesn’t become overly tart after frozen, frozen strawberries are very similar in flavour to fresh strawberries. It’s more the texture that changes, as it expected.

Personally, I also like my family to be used to fresh and natural flavours from young as I feel I’m training their palates now.

So whether you decide to use sugar or not, this is really personal preference. However, my logic is you can always add later, but you can’t take away. So if you want to add some sugar you can, but it’s not necessary when freezing fresh strawberries. If you do decide to add sugar I’d encourage you to choose natural sweetener, like honey.

What’s needed to freeze fresh strawberries

1. fresh strawberries (of course!)
2. food colander
3. favourite knife
4. bowl for fresh strawberries
5. compost bucket or bowl for stems
6. ziplock bags or reusable container for freezing

How to freeze strawberries?

Freezing fresh strawberries is such a simple, easy and fun process!

1. Set up your assembly line, I like to work in batches.
2. If you have kids old enough, include them, and let them snack, it’ll make it fun for them and they will become invaluable helpers as they grow old and their appetites get bigger.
3. First cut off the green stems of the strawberries, try to take as little of the berry off as possible. I like to have a bowl to toss the stems into.
4. As you de-stem the strawberries, place the berries into a colander in the sink to be rinsed.
5. If you’re slicing the strawberries, do this next and place into a bowl. Depending on their size you can cut them a few times, the size is for your preference.
6. If you’re not slicing the strawberries, place them directly into freezer bags.
7. Lay the freezer bags filled with fresh strawberries flat in the freezer.

That’s it! Now you can enjoy strawberries year around, until the next growing season!

Should strawberries be washed before freezing?

Definitely! After chopping off the stems simply place them into a colander and get any garden dirt off with a quick rinse of cool water.

If you’re using store bought strawberries, simply soak for about 2 minutes in water with a few tablespoons of vinegar in it. This will help kill any unwanted bacteria or other unwanted guests clinging to the strawberries as well as help with lessening the toxins that may have been sprayed on the strawberries.

After soaking the store bought strawberries in vinegar water, then rinse with cool water before placing into the freezer bags.

You could flash freeze your whole strawberries, however you don’t have to and they thaw just fine skipping this step.

How to freeze strawberries in ziplock bags?

The quick answer is it’s easy, simply put the de-stemmed and washed strawberries directly into the zip lock bag.

I like to freeze sliced strawberries in sandwich bags, whole strawberries in large ziplock bags. But you don’t have to. You can use reusable bags, or plastic or glass containers that you have on hand.

What you choose to freeze your strawberries in depends on what you have available to you. Perhaps you want to only use glass to avoid plastic, this definitely works too!

How do you keep frozen strawberries from going mushy?

While frozen strawberries won’t have the same firm and fresh texture as fresh strawberries, there are a few ways that are better for thawing strawberries.

The key is to not thaw fully. You will find the strawberries are firm but there’s enough ice in them so they are soft enough to eat.

1. Let them thaw overnight in the fridge in a bowl (should take 6-12 hours).
2. Give the strawberries a cold water bath. Let the submerged bag of fruit sit in the cold water for 30 minutes or longer, changing the water every 15 minutes or so until the fruit is defrosted.
3. Alternatively you could place the frozen strawberries in a bowl and then run cool water overtop until they are thawed to your liking.
4. Microwave using the defrost or low power settings for 30 seconds (might be less, depending on how much fruit), then 5 second intervals until it is thawed to your liking.

The Best Frozen Strawberry Recipes

Freezing strawberries is wonderful for so many amazing recipes! There are so many delicious ways to enjoy frozen strawberries all year long, here is a list of some of our favourites.

• smoothies or smoothie bowl
• homemade fruit ice cream
• topped on homemade granola
• homemade strawberry juice
• pancake topping
• on top of cooked oatmeal
• strawberry shortcake topping
• in chia pudding
• strawberry jam (water bath canning method or freshly made from frozen strawberries)
• frozen or baked strawberry pie
• in baked goods like muffins, scones, pancakes, cobbler, crisp, french toast casserole

Preserving strawberries longer

If you have so many strawberries and your freezer is plum full… or is it berry full?! You can home can strawberry jam using frozen strawberries. Be careful to follow proper canning procedures when looking for a recipe that suits your family.

I usually adapt something from the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving canning book and substitute sugar for honey and a whole lot less then they call for. Strawberries are acidic enough that the fruit and lemon juice called for is what keeps the canning safe, not the amount of sugar.

Snag this FREE Meal Planning Printable

Speaking of using frozen strawberries in more recipes I think you may like this FREE meal planing template! It makes planning your weekly meals so easy. Included is even daily place for any NOTES you want to make, like strawberry recipes.

Go ahead and pin this to your Preserving food board for later!

Have you ever frozen fresh strawberries like this before? What do you think is the best way to freeze strawberries for your family? I’d love to hear about it and your favourite strawberry recipes below!

Shop All you need to freeze strawberries

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• metal colander
• zip lock sandwich size bags
• zip lock large (gallon) size bags
• glass dishes for freezing
• reusable sandwich size bags
• reusable gallon bags
• stainless steel mixing bowls
• Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving

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