When you pick as many as 30 pounds of fresh blueberries, there is no possible way you can eat them all before they go bad. And you probably should try it! So the best thing to do is freeze them to use later and throughout the year.

Frozen blueberries can be used for many things such as:

  • toss a handful of frozen blueberries into a smoothie for added antioxidants and flavor
  • mix with plain or vanilla yogurt, as they thaw they flavor the yogurt
  • use in muffins, coffee cakes, breads or scones
  • eat a handful as a low calorie snack
  • sprinkle over cereal
  • add to a fruit salad
  • use as mini ice cubes in a specialty drink

When freezing blueberries it is important that you take your time and make sure each berry gets frozen individually. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Pick your berries.
  2. Rinse them in cool water and remove stems or leaves. Make sure to pat them dry completely.
  3. Arrange the dry berries in one layer on a cookie sheet or baking dish. Make sure the sheet you are putting them on fits in your freeze and can be level. The berries should be able to wiggle a little so they are able to freeze individually.
  4. Place the sheet in the freezer, making sure it stays level.
  5. Once the berries are frozen solid, remove them from the sheet and store in containers that will fit in your freezer. The berries should be like marbles, not one big clump.  I prefer to use Ziploc quart sized freezer bags. These bags are large enough to hold a lot of berries but small enough to fit in many places in the freezer.
  6. Put the containers of frozen berries back into the freezer quickly, as the berries thaw easily.
  7. Use the berries! Take out as many or as few as you would like at a time. Make sure the whole bag does not thaw so they berries can’t clump together.

Picked berries:

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Freezing on the cookie sheet:

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Store in freezer bags:

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