It's strawberry season in Connecticut, and pick-your-own farms are everywhere. Why spend $2.50 a pound for pesticide-laden, questionable-quality-by-the-time-they-hit-the-east-coast berries from California, or $8.00 for a 4 lb. bag of whole frozen strawberries at Sam's Club when you can pick them fresh for @ $1.00 per pound and freeze them yourself just hours later. I freeze my strawberries three ways:
1) I wash them, cut the stems off, and lay them in a single layer, not touching, on a waxed-paper coated piece of cardboard or cookie sheet - then I freeze them that way. Once they're frozen, you've got yourself a bunch of red marbles that you simply transfer to a gallon ziplock bag and store in the freezer.
2) I wash, stem, and slice them up, mix them with a little sugar (helps keep them freezer burn-free) and store them by the quart in quart-sized ziplock bags - lay the bags flat to freeze...but make sure there's a flat surface underneath them, or you'll be trying to pry frozen bags of strawberries from your wire freezer shelves. These I use for topping desserts such as shortcake, cheesecake, etc.
3) I make a bunch of no-cook strawberry freezer jam to last us a year until the next picking season - just pick up a box of Sure-Jell at the grocery store and follow the instructions - it's the easiest and best tasting strawberry jam you will ever have!
So go ahead - fill the freezer! You'll be reaping the rewards all year long!
No comments:
Post a Comment