Frozen Berries: How to Freeze Blueberries

It’s important to learn how to properly freeze blueberries so that they don’t all freeze in one giant clump. If you don’t follow these instructions, you’ll be very frustrated when you only want to defrost a handful, and all the blueberries are in a glob! I’ll take you through freezing them step-by-step so that this never happens, starting with our very own blueberry bushes.

We have bushes that we planted over 30 years ago and they are now about eight feet tall and ten feet wide. If you do wish to grow blueberries, all you have to do is keep them weeded—which is fairly easy, as they shade their own soil (meaning not many weeds grow there anyway).

Our goal was to have so many blueberries that the birds couldn’t eat them all, but last year the birds did get the bulk of the crop. So this year, we covered our two favorite bushes (one of many great ideas for keeping birds off your crops). The harvest was lush and successful!

Image: I think that the birds for miles around have discovered our beautiful blueberry bushes. During this particular season, when the blueberries are ripe, all the wild bird poop is blue.

Before you pick your blueberries, check our Ripeness Guide to see whether they’re ready to pick yet. You wan to select full-flavored, ripe berries.

For the picking, I use a yogurt container with a string attached. This allows me to have both hands free for easy access to the berries.

I will often have other containers nearby to dump the berries into, as they can become heavy around the neck when the yogurt container becomes full.

When I am finished picking, I go through the blueberries to remove leaves, stems and immature or defective berries.

Steps to Freezing Berries

1. Do not wash the berries before freezing or their skins get tough. You also want the berries to be dry when they go into the freezer. (You can rinse the berries when you take them out of the freezer, right before eating them.)
2. Simply spread the berries on a cookie sheet, completey dry. Inevitably, leaves and stems will end up with the berries, so I go through and clean them up. If you freeze the berries on cookie sheets, they will freeze individually. Then, you can use the amount that you wish. Just backing berries into freezer bags causes them to mush together in one big lump.
3. After the berries are frozen, I put them in their freezer bags. I do this over a bowl, as there are always a few stragglers that don’t quite make it into the bag. 

Into the freezer they go for use the whole year long! Like frozen grapes, frozen blueberries can be a delicious treat on their own—think of them as nature’s candy! You can also simply defrost them when you are ready to use them.