Strawberry:
1. a sweet soft red fruit with a seed-studded surface.
2. the low-growing plant that produces the strawberry, having white flowers, lobed leaves, and runners, and found throughout north temperate regions.
Ahhh the sweet taste of summer. What other fruit screams summer than a bright red, sweet strawberry? Matt and I LOVE strawberries. We eat them pretty much every day either in our smoothies or in homemade muffins. But come November - April, the strawberries in New Jersey are TERRIBLE. They have zero flavor and are white in the inside. No one wants that right?
So we headed out to our local farm to purchase some strawberries. We went there with the intention to purchase maybe 25 lbs or so, and ended up with 57.7 lbs which was 40 quarts of strawberries. 40 quarts...holy c*rap that's a lot of strawberries. But we did not worry, we knew we'd have strawberries that will last us through the fall/winter and spring of 2016!
Once we got all the strawberries home, the process started. I line as many cookie sheets with parchment paper that we have, and start cutting! I quartered the strawberries and laid them flat out on the sheets. We popped them right into the freezer and let them freeze for about 24 hours. We do not have a TON of freezer space so this took about 3-4 days to complete. I'd put on some good music, pour a cup of tea and sit and cut....and cut....and cut. Once one set of trays were frozen, we'd label the bags and fill them, and put them right back into the freezer. And start all over.
We of course also save all the tops of the strawberries. There is nothing wrong with a little green top going into your morning smoothie. They have great flavor and nutrients. I often wonder why we always toss them. Throughout this whole process, I may have composted 10 strawberries. That's a pretty good ratio out of 57.7 lbs.
We are soo excited to have organic, local strawberries to enjoy throughout the year. I look forward to creating new smoothies and recipes that will include these little red beauties.
If you have any questions on freezing fresh fruit, please shoot us an email. We do it so often and have a few tips if you need it. Up next is peaches (which will be picked this weekend) so be sure to check back or follow us on Instagram for some behind the scenes peach picking pictures and videos!