This week we went on a Choose Your Own Adventure – of the berry variety. Our quest was to preserve the beautiful berry harvest of late June. We chose strawberries as our protagonist in this story, but it could have just as easily starred the season’s blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, or cherries. They are all appearing at our farmers markets these days – have you seen them? Have you tried them? Have you relished every bite, and with each one, taken a moment to say thank you to summer? Yes, SAME HERE.

We tried two different methods of preserving our quarts of fresh, local strawberries: 1) drying and 2) freezing. On the drying front, we don’t have a dehydrator, so we tried the oven method. It calls for cleaning the berries, cutting off the green stem, and then placing them in the oven for 3-4 hours at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. We’re sharing this because we’d like our fellow preservationists to learn from our mistakes: Don’t do it.

When we pulled out the berries at hour #4, our they had shriveled to little flakes and used a lot of energy in the process. Yes, shriveling is the point of drying, but nonetheless, it was an energy-intensive process that created a hot kitchen on a hotter summer day — without much return. In seeing the final outcome, the phrase “Pinterest Fail“ quickly came to mind.

We’re happy to say that the journey of freezing the berries went much better. It’s so easy to do in just 5 steps:

1. Rinse the berries.
2. Dry them with a paper towel. Our method is to roll them around in a colander lined with paper towels.
3. Cut off the green stem, so there is a flat surface on one side.
4. Distribute them across a baking sheet; do not allow them to touch. This is how we prevent the berries from freezing into one massive bunch.
5. Put the berries in the freezer. Once they are frozen (2+ hours), add them into a Zip-Loc freezer bag. Now we’ve got berries to add to smoothies, pancakes, and more for many months to come. And they taste divine.

To share the process visually, we snapped a few photos along the way and posted this photo album online. Click on any photo to read its caption.

Are you preserving the harvest this year? If so, we’d love to see what you’re up to, so let us know. AND – See you at the farmers market berry table this weekend!