My fingers are shriveled and my back is tired…all to preserve the 20 pounds of blueberries I picked up today from the Kiwana’s blueberry sale. Whew! I just finished washing and freezing 22 pints of blueberries. It always feels great to get them all safely tucked into the freezer. I have enough to last a year and I can almost taste the first batch of blueberry muffins I have in mind! (Check out my favorite muffin recipe: https://marykisner.com/the-best-vegan-muffin/).
This year the blueberries came from New Jersey. In the past they’ve been sourced from Maine. They were quite clean already but I still rinse them in cool water and remove any squashed or unripe berries. They can be washed, scooped directly into freezer bags and put in the freezer. When frozen they can easily be measured out like a pile of marbles and baked into goodies, added to fruit cup or eaten on cereal.
Out of these 20 pounds, I think I had to throw away about 1/2 cup of squashed berries and stems…not bad. The bags stack neatly on the freezer shelf and will be a real treat in the middle of winter.
We tried growing our own blueberries a few years ago, but our soil must not be right and we had to fence them completely because the deer, bunnies and birds would help themselves as they wandered by. An ongoing battle in Pennsylvania!
I’m all for letting folks that are good at growing things we can’t, be my source to stock up my freezer. In the dead of winter around here local blueberries are NOT available! Knowing there may be food shortages this winter, I’m always on the lookout for things that I can add to my freezer without having to grow them myself. Check out farmers markets near you to do the same!
Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.