Over the past two days, I’ve bought 7 pounds of strawberries and 3 pounds of blackberries. (We ate some and shared some, so the picture doesn’t have all of them in it.) We’re a family of three, so there’s no way we’re going to eat all of the berries I bought before they go bad. But I bought them to save money later.
Berries (and other produce) are priced best when they’re in season. If you want strawberries or blackberries out of season, you’re going to pay for them! And they won’t be quite as sweet as they are when they’re in season. I like to buy a bunch when the price is right and then store them in the freezer to use later.
I start by soaking them in water with a splash of vinegar, as recommended by Life As MOM. Then I trim the stems and cut them. Next I dry the berries on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels.
Once the berries are dry, I flash freeze them. To do this, I remove the paper towels, put the berries back on the cookie sheet in a single layer, and pop them into the freezer for a while. Once they’re individually frozen, I place them in freezer bags, squeeze out the air, and store them in the freezer. Flash freezing them allows me to freeze the berries without worrying that they’ll be one big frozen clump when I want to use them. I can take out as many or as few as I need.
I bought a bag of frozen berries at Walmart recently and paid almost $3.00 for a pound. By buying fresh, in-season berries, I was able to drastically cut this cost. Now we have lots of strawberries and blackberries for baking, making smoothies, or just eating frozen!
My Flash Freezing Tips:
- Don’t forget to remove the paper towels before you pop the cookie sheets in the freezer. Don’t ask me how I know. I just do. Enough said.
- Don’t forget to leave out a few fresh blackberries for your family to eat. Don’t freeze them all. Again, I just know this.
- Don’t think you can squeeze 2 1/2 pounds of blackberries into a small freezer bag. Not going to happen. I just know.
Strawberries are on sale at Kroger this week for $1.50/pound. We may see some prices closer to $1, but $1.50 isn’t too bad around here. If you’d like to start flash freezing some for yourself, this might be a good week to start.
Aldi has the same brand of strawberries for $1.19. Thanks for posting how to freeze them. We’re really enjoying them but they will be a great treat after strawberry season is over.
I haven’t seen ours that low yet, but I’m hopeful!! They’re down to $1.50 this week. I may have to grab a few more. I’m hoping for the $.99 that some others have reported in other areas!
Aldi’s had had strawberries for .99 cents for two weeks. Thanks for the help 🙂
Awesome! Hope you were able to fill the freezer at that price! I’ve even defrosted them overnight in the fridge and used them for pancakes. They’re a little mushy, so you have to use them in things where it doesn’t matter. But the flavor is still there.