Freezing Fresh Strawberries

A few weeks ago my husband got a really good buy on strawberries at Aldi.  99c a pound.  Not too shabby!  When he came home with 4 pounds I thought...we can't possibly eat those before they go bad!  I eat a serving of berries a day, but I knew I couldn't eat these fast enough.  So I decided to freeze them.

Did you know that berries are really high in antioxidants, which are purported to be helpful in staving off cancer?  Particularly blackberries. The darker the berry, the better the benefits. When I was preggo with my son, my doula told us she ate them every day because colon cancer ran in her family. You learn something new every day!

Yes, I am aware there are only 3# of strawberries shown below.  I already plopped the first batch in the sink before I remembered to take a picture.  Sometimes it's hard to remember to take pictures of everything you make, lol!

Start by cleaning your sink with salt and/or baking soda.  We don't want any chemicals in there tainting our berries.  (Well, they're probably already tainted since they aren't organic, but what are ya gonna do?)  Rinse sink thoroughly with hot water.   Then fill with cold water and a big splash of vinegar. My friend  Mary has a post on her site about how vinegar can prolong the life of berries you intend to refrigerate.  I used it with the intent to clean my berries not realizing it would have that affect, so that's a nice added bonus!  

After soaking for a bit, drain the berries and put them on a towel to dry.  Pat dry with a 2nd towel.

Hull each strawberry, removing the green part.

This next part is something I did because I had just made an Angel Food Cake and I wanted to save some spare parts to toss with sugar.  I cut off the top part with the hole in it, creating a pile of strawberry 'donuts'.

I then took each strawberry and cut it into quarters.

I decided to line a couple of sheet pans with some waxed paper.  I had intended on using parchment, but I was out.  Looking back, I would have been better off just putting the berries on the bare pans because they stuck like glue to the waxed paper and was a pain to pick off.  Had they been on the bare pans, they still would have needed to be pried off with a spatula, but it would have been a lot easier.  So, please learn from my mistakes.

Spread out your cut berries on the sheets.  You can that the left pan has a bunch of smaller pieces cut up on it. I started out cutting them up very small because I don't like eating large pieces.  But darn, that was a pain so I gave up on that business.

Place pans in the freezer until frozen solid.  Gently pry off the berries and put in a freezer bag.  This way, you can take out as little or as much as you want.  I got a full gallon bag out of these!  Remember, I still have a bunch of little donut pieces, too.  

Here's what I did with those little donuts...I cut them up into a small dice.  

Then I threw in a couple of tablespoons of sugar, stirred it up and threw it in the fridge for dessert later.

So, basically, I had 4 Lbs of strawberries for $3.96.  The sugar-free frozen bags I normally buy from Aldi cost $2.99 for 2 Lbs.  This was a 33% savings for just a bit of work.  I think it was worth it because the strawberries I normally buy are frozen whole.  I have to wait quite a while for them to thaw half way each night before I have them.  Cutting my own should cut down on my wait time. What I do is throw some in a bowl and add in a little stevia.  When they're partially thawed, I smash them up.  It's frosty and has the texture of sorbet!  I also add in a tiny pinch of real sea salt.  It's healthy, super yummy and takes care of my sweet cravings!

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