Freeze Fresh Picked Strawberries Whole Or Sliced

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Strawberry season has started where I live and I am enjoying eating lots of them fresh but I am also getting ready to freeze fresh picked strawberries for the winter months!  I have just cleaned out my produce freezer from the winter storage and it is now clean and ready for this year’s season of fresh berries and fruit that I like to freeze.

So the question that is asked alot….Can you freeze strawberries?  The answer is Yes, you can freeze strawberries whole or sliced up!

Whether you have gone to a u-pick farm and picked your own strawberries or stopped by a local fruit truck to grab some fresh picked strawberries it is best to freeze them now so you can enjoy the fresh taste during the winter months in your favorite smoothie recipes, over cake and ice cream or to whip up a batch of yummy strawberry jam!

Freeze Fresh Picked Strawberries

I like to start by cutting off the tops of my fresh picked strawberries.  Be sure not to cut off to much as we don’t want to waste to much of the fresh strawberry.  You can also use a strawberry huller for this process which will also remove some of the core from the strawberry.

I then carefully transfer my strawberries to a strainer to be rinsed off with some cold water.  You don’t want to be to rough with your strawberries and start tossing them around.  They will bruise.  I prefer to just rinse my fresh strawberries as there is usually only some dust to rinse off.  Submerging your strawberries in water for to long can lead to leaching out valuable nutrients.

How to Freeze Fresh Picked Strawberries Whole

After I have rinsed off my fresh strawberries I like to let them sit a bit to drain off the excess water or you will have some ice crystals around them when frozen.  If you are in a hurry you can lightly dab them with a paper towel or clean cloth.  I then get a cookie tray and place a piece of parchment paper or you can use wax paper on top of the cookie sheet.  I gently place my strawberries onto the paper spread apart.  It is nice to have the berries spaced out so that when they are frozen you can put them into bags and they will stay separated so that you can conveniently take out the desired amount of berries that you will need at the time.  You are then ready to place your cookie sheet into your freezer.  Make sure you have prepared a flat spot ahead of time in your freezer so your tray lays flat and not lopsided.  You don’t want to open your freezer and see that the tray has shifted and your berries have all froze together in a big heap.

How To Freeze And Store Strawberries

Once your Strawberries are frozen solid you can take them out from the freezer and place them into your freezer bags.  Be sure to write the date on your freezer bag so that when you get more bags of frozen strawberries you will know which ones to use first.  You can store your frozen bags of strawberries on top of each other in the freezer.

How to Freeze Fresh Picked Strawberries Sliced

You are going to prepare your fresh picked strawberries the same way as above for whole ones.  You can use a bowl to slice your strawberries into or you can go ahead and slice them up right onto your parchment/waxed paper prepared cookie sheet. If you don’t like slicing the strawberries by hand and prefer a nice uniform slice you can use a strawberry slicer to give you perfect slices.  You will want to spread them out so that they don’t freeze into one giant strawberry.  If you can space them out enough then when they are frozen and you go to place them into bags they should easily break apart.  You can see in the picture below I did a variety of whole and sliced fresh strawberries to freeze.

Once your sliced fresh strawberries are frozen solid you can remove your tray from the freezer and place the frozen berries into freezer bags for storage.  Write the date on your freezer bag so you will know which bags to use first.

And now you can enjoy the taste of your fresh picked strawberries through out the winter months in your favorite strawberry recipes!