how to freeze blueberries
Picking blueberries in July is one of our favorite family traditions, or  should I say “the girls and I love our favorite family tradition”.
My big boys have grown out of their desire to sweat in the NC summer sun as slave labor, and yet they expect to just enjoy sampling the fruit of our labors. That is not to be. I forced encouraged them to come pick, yes, I did.
If you don’t work, you don’t eat. 😉
freezing blueberries
picking blueberries
Around the corner from our home is a “pick your own” blueberry patch. I have planted ten bushes in our own garden, but they haven’t mastered the art of producing for a family yet. Hopefully by next year.
Every season,  my desire is to pick enough to last us into the winter, but that means many hands to do the picking.  With our  fruit smoothies, muffins, blueberry pancakes, and cobblers, we go through fruit quite quickly.
Picking it during the peak of the season when the prices are low, and then freezing it allows me to save oodles of money, yet benefit nutritionally as well.
blueberry bush
picking blueberries as a group
Blueberries are the easiest of fruits to freeze. There is absolutely no trick to it. Typically, I am in the habit of flash freezing all of my fruit so they do not freeze in one big clump, but with blueberries, you can literally wash, dry and dump into a freezer bag and enjoy at your convenience.
Have you ever tried frozen grapes and blueberries right out of the freezer? YUM – it’s a delicious and healthy treat for anyone, even the kids will love it.
freeze blueberry

So how about you…do you ever pick your own fruit?

And a blast from the past…
The second post EVER on my blog was about our blueberry picking expedition in the rain. I barely even knew what a blog was when I shared this story, and rereading it  was such fun.
(And that little boy in the white shirt is now 6’2″ and weighs 200 lbs. How did that happen SO quickly? Well, probably the same way I gained 15 lbs since that picture…;))
blueberry picking in rain_opt