Freeze the Bounty of Summer Fruit

This summer remember that fruits are easy to freeze. Many you don't need to blanch or do much to other than wash, dry and perhaps add sugar to (for the best product). Local small berries, if you grow them, are probably past picking, but they are still available in markets. If you can drive up to the mountains or further north, picking both wild and farmed berries should be going on

Summer berries, especially those you pick yourself, or grow yourself, are so much better than those usually sold in stores. If you go somewhere to pick, you are in control of how ripe those berries are. If you plan well you can pick in the morning and have those berries in the freezer or in a jar that evening. Preserving doesn't get much more immediate than than--unless you get the fruit from your own backyard or from a neighbor.

Small berries such as blackberries or blueberries can be washed, dried, placed in a single layer in a flat pan and individually frozen dry or with a little sugar. Place them in freezer containers or freezer bags and you can pour out whatever you need when you need it.

 

 

Fresh, ripe melons are fantastic, of course! But melons such as honeydew and cantaloupe can be frozen. Place chunks in the freezer at the height of the season so that you can eat a bit of summer during the winter.

 

 

 

 

Grapes are great frozen whole in to eat as a sweet, cold treat. Taste first to make sure you are freezing the sweetest ones and they will taste fantastic frozen. Of course you can freeze them in a puree if you want to make some jelly during the winter to warm your home up! And remember grape jam or jelly.

 

 

 

 

 

And one last "for instance": don't forget pineapple. Pineapple on sale can be very sweet and cost-effective to freeze. Freezing pineapple is fast too--no sugar needed, just wash, peel, cut it up and freeze. Of course you can jar it up yourself.

 

 

 

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