Preserving and Freezing fruit

Preserving strawberries

One way to preserve fruit is by freezing it.  I had a lot of strawberries after visiting a pick your own farm.  After making pie filling, jam and jelly, I froze about 3 gallon ziplock bags worth.

I use this fruit in smoothies for breakfast (see recipe below).  They can also be used as a topping for pound cake, just sprinkle the strawberries with a couple tablespoons of sugar, stir and let sit for a couple of hours and serve.  The sugar and fruit will make a nice sweet syrup that will soak into the cake!  

The trick to not having them stuck together after they freeze is to freeze them individually first.

Below are the steps to follow when freezing fruit.

Clean the fruit and place on a parchment lined sheet pan

place the pans in a freezer for 2-3 hours or until frozen

remove from the pan and store in a freezer tight container

When using the fruit, make sure not to leave the container out of the freezer too long.  The fruit will start to thaw and stick together.  Take out what you need and place the rest back in the freezer.

Strawberry Smoothie

Combine the following ingredients in a blender until smooth

1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (can use fat free or low fat)

1/2 cup milk (can use skim or low fat)

1-2 tablespoons sugar or sugar substitute

1 cup frozen strawberries (add these one at a time so you don't crowd the blender)

I usually keep water on hand just in case I need to add more liquid to the blender.

Happy Canning!

Linda