Freezing Strawberries
It's strawberry season here in the Ozarks. Which means, that every couple of days, we get anywhere from one to three pounds of strawberries. Unfortunately that's not quite enough to make strawberry jam, so we freeze the berries until there are enough.
Freezing strawberries is a simple task, but it does take a while to prepare the berries for the freezer.
Here's what I do.
The first step is to wash the berries. We use an over the sink strainer, which makes this very easy.
Next you have to remove the green caps. I use a steak knife, as the serrated blade helps make the job easier. While capping the berries, I also remove any unripe, white caps that can make the strawberries bitter.
In a line a bowl at the side of the sink with an open freezer bag. This makes it easy to give me a place to put the berries after they are capped and in some cases, if they are large, cut in half.
Once the bag is full, it's time to seal it. I write on the label what's in the bag, what date I did them and how many pounds we ended up with.
Then it's into the freezer until I have enough to make preserves.
If you don't want preserves, you can also sprinkle the berries with sugar and place the bag in the refrigerator for a day. The sugar will draw moisture from the berries and make excellent syrup. The berries can then be frozen or served in dishes such as Strawberry Short Cake.
