Frozen berries!

[dalimeindacoconut]

are sooooooooooooooooooooooo good! Just discovered them because of you guys! Frozen organic strawberries wooooo hooooooooo & frozen blueberries yummy yummy!

[crystalmoon]

Are they frozen without being blanched in boiling water first? I cant seem to find any truly raw frozen fruit here in the UK which is such a pain 'cos we have such a short season for growing yummy berries.

[buffalogal]

Frozen fruit is usually not blanched. Frozen vegetables usually are. The best thing to do if your growing season is short is to buy as many berries and fruits that you can afford when they are in season. Then you can freeze them yourself and save alot of money on frozen ones that you have to buy when they're not in season. It's simple. Spread the fruit out on a cookie sheet (make sure they're not touching). Pop them in the freezer for a few hours. Then scoop them into whatever you are using for freezer storage. I use foodsaver bags - it vacuum seals them so they don't get freezer burn. It's really simple. I freeze everything this way - any kind of berry, oranges, pineapple, etc. This way, I always have frozen fruit on hand for my smoothies and don't have to pay high prices in the winter. I'm sure they do lose some of their nutritional value through the freezing process, but I'm sure the store-bought ones do too. Of course, fresh is best, but I find doing the freezing myself is the next best thing!!!:) :)

[Vivafree2]

Thank you Buffa for sharing! Excellent idea- i will do that.
In the meantime i discovered frozen sour cherries and blackcurrants - excellent for icecream and desertblended with banana!!!

[mousebandit]

Here's a question that I should know the answer to, LOL! How can you get the seeds off of the blackberries? I have a thing in with my canning supplies that I never used, but I *think* it was designed to make seedless jams and jellies. It is an inverted cone shape, metal, with lots of little holes in it, and rests in a holder. It has a large wooden thingy that I *think* you use to press the raw fruit up against the sides with, and maybe the seeds stay in and the fruit goes through? It's basically like a large cone-shaped mortar and pestle with holes in the sides! I'm wondering though, if enough of the fruit would go through, and if those holes are small enough to keep the seeds in?

Anyone ever use one of these things! I LOVE blackberries, and they literally grow like weeds in my part of the country, so I can pick and freeze gallons and gallons and gallons - and they're all definately organic because they're just growing everywhere in the fields, pastures, and woods, LOL! And, I'm not talking cultivated pastures, either!

Thanks if anyone can help me, otherwise I'm going to have to call my extension office and look like a dork since I just took their classes last summer, LOL!

Tracey Mouse

[sfdreams]

Here's a question that I should know the answer to, LOL! How can you get the seeds off of the blackberries? I have a thing in with my canning supplies that I never used, but I *think* it was designed to make seedless jams and jellies. It is an inverted cone shape, metal, with lots of little holes in it, and rests in a holder. It has a large wooden thingy that I *think* you use to press the raw fruit up against the sides with, and maybe the seeds stay in and the fruit goes through? It's basically like a large cone-shaped mortar and pestle with holes in the sides! I'm wondering though, if enough of the fruit would go through, and if those holes are small enough to keep the seeds in?

Anyone ever use one of these things! I LOVE blackberries, and they literally grow like weeds in my part of the country, so I can pick and freeze gallons and gallons and gallons - and they're all definately organic because they're just growing everywhere in the fields, pastures, and woods, LOL! And, I'm not talking cultivated pastures, either!

Thanks if anyone can help me, otherwise I'm going to have to call my extension office and look like a dork since I just took their classes last summer, LOL!

Tracey Mouse

Tracey, I am very familiar with what you are describing--my parents used one of those for years processing the persimmons from our trees into pulp. I've never seen it used for anything else, but I'm thinking the seeds on blackberries are so small that they would go through the holes??

[crystalmoon]

Thanks so much for the useful tips Buffalogal I will definitely freeze my own this summer