We LOVE blueberries. Every year we buy a lot and freeze them. We use them all winter in blueberry waffles, pancakes, muffins and smoothies or in yogurt or oatmeal.
This week we bought a 10 pound box and then 18 pints at the grocery store. (I think that is rougly 25 pounds.) We froze 20 sandwich bags full of them. If you haven’t done that before, it is very simple.
Run the blueberries under water. Then try to get as much moisture off as possible. I pat them dry with a paper towel.
Lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze for a few hours. Scoop them up and bag them. (We put ours in sandwich bags and then put 4 full sandwich bags inside a gallon size freezer bag to keep them fresh.)
This year I also got adventurous and made homemade syrup. I used this recipe which was quite simple.
I had the syrup made before my husband had finished making the blueberry waffles. Yum!
Since I had good luck making strawberry jam this year (my rasperry jam, on the other hand, was a disaster), I decided to try blueberry jam. I bought a package of dry pectin and followed the directions. It took about 2.5 pints of blueberries and I got five small containers of jam. This will taste so good in the winter!
Here is a picture of what we did with 25 pounds of blueberries, minus the many that we ate:
I shared this post at Life as Mom.
yum! 🙂
Thanks for posting instructions and pictures.
I bought a lot of blueberries today (4 pints – well, a lot for me) with intention of trying to freeze them. Your post gives me confidence it will work.
You've inspired me to get back and pick some more berries before the season is over!
Thanks for sharing this.
🙂
Stop by and visit me over at Free 2 Be Frugal!
I bought 10 lbs. of blueberries last week:
http://cuttingcouponsinkc.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-do-you-do-with-10-pounds-of.html
It will be nice to have fresh blueberries in the winter without paying the winter blueberry price!!
Blueberry syrup looks delish!! Why do you freeze them on a cookie sheet for a few hours first??
Mommy-Wise–I freeze them on the cookie sheet first so they freeze individually instead of in one big clump if I put them all in the bag together if they were fresh. After they are frozen on the cookie sheet and put in a bag, it is easy to take out just the amount I need without them sticking together.