An easy and quick way to keep strawberries!

A few weeks ago, we had a hailstorm – after the fact reports came in and a farm north of us had major damage to its crops. We also heard from a neighbor that the golf ball size hail killed a horse that had got caught out in it, poor thing…

We got lucky, that could have easily been us. Other than a few little issues our garden, a bruised finger from one of (ok, probably a lot of) the hailstones and red marks all over me and my husband’s backs, we made it thru with minimal damage. Thank the good Lord!

We did however have some plants that looked horrible. The strawberries were one of them. The leaves were ripped to shreds and some of the fruit was damaged, but the good thing is that the plants have come back strong, and we have had a bumper crop of them. So, after eating a bunch and giving some away, I decided to freeze some. Having strawberries in the freezer is a great way to enjoy them all year long. One thing that helps get rid of the winter blues is a strawberry-banana smoothie in the dead of winter – it helps remind me that it won’t last forever!

Freeing strawberries is super easy!

• To start you want fresh strawberries without blemishes.
• Wash them and then let them dry a bit. I usually get the rest of my equipment ready while they are drying
• Place wax paper on a baking sheet – a silicone baking mat would work also, just make sure yours is freezer safe.
• Trim the tops and cut into uniform sizes and place on baking sheet.
• Pop it in the freezer for at least 2 hours, I usually leave ours in overnight.
• Pull them out after they are all frozen and put in marked freezer bags.

These are great on a hot day just as a cool snack or made into a quick smoothie.

I hope you have a great day!

–Dawn