5 Summer Fruits to Get Into Your Freezer NOW

Written by Karen @ To Work With My Hands, Contributing Writer

One of the many reasons to love summertime is the wide array of fresh fruits that are available.

Enjoying them fresh is so wonderful, but the season seems to be too short, so the next best thing is to get them preserved for enjoying throughout the year. My very favorite way to preserve summer fruits is freezing.

Here’s 5 yummy summer fruits that freeze easily and well, and some delicious ways to enjoy them:

1. Strawberries

To freeze strawberries, just rinse and gently pat dry. Cut off the leaves and slice berries into rounds or quarters – whatever works best for your recipes.

Lay pieces onto baking sheets, making sure they don’t overlap, and put into the freezer. Allow the pieces to freeze for a few hours – enough to be solidly frozen. Transfer to a freezer bag and label. Put back into the freezer and you’re done!

Frozen strawberries are a favorite for smoothies. There’s no need to thaw – just put a handful into the blender with the rest of your ingredients and blend. One of my favorites is kefir, strawberries, bananas, and a bit of apple juice concentrate – Delicious!

Strawberry jam is my family’s favorite homemade jam flavor. By using Pomona’s Pectin, I can easily control the amount of sugar, or other sweetener, that I use without compromising the quality or setting performance.

2. Peaches

Peaches freeze best when peeled and cut into chunks. There’s a quick and simple way to perfectly remove the skin from peaches without wasting a single bit of the fruit: Drop a few peaches at a time into a pot of boiling water. After 15 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into ice water.

When the peaches are cool enough to handle, the skin will slip right off. If your peaches aren’t extremely ripe, it may take a little longer. Just add more boiling water time, or you can always repeat the process if needed.

Once the skin is off, remove the pit and chop your peaches into chunks or slices. Put pieces on a baking tray and finish the same as strawberries.

*Note: If you have a choice, always choose freestone, rather than clingstone, peaches. It will make the job much easier, and you won’t lose any of the fruit that clings to the pit.

Peaches are great in smoothies too. We also love them warmed with some natural sweetener and served over fresh homemade pancakes or waffles with freshly whipped cream. For a refreshing summer treat, make this yummy homemade peach sorbet.

3. Blueberries

There’s varying opinions on how to best freezer blueberries. After checking with a local grower, I confirmed that they are best frozen without rinsing. Rinsing blueberries before freezing will greatly compromise quality.

Simply place them into freezer bags, label, and freeze! Since they’re whole and dry, you don’t even have to freeze them on baking sheets first. Can it get any easier than this?

Do plan to rinse them just before using. I keep a small colander handy for blueberries, and it’s a snap to rinse them just before using.

This year I made a delicious blueberry sauce to top our pancakes, yogurt, ice cream, cheesecake, and even to add to smoothie recipes. It was also yummy mixed into plain cream cheese as a topping for bagels or toast.

And before you freeze them all, do mix in some fresh blueberries into yogurt and granola.

4. Figs

Figs are so wonderful fresh, but they have such an incredibly short season. In the past I’ve canned and dried them, but a couple of years ago I decided to try freezing them. It worked perfectly.

Just rinse, gently dry, remove stems and cut in half. Spread in a single layer on baking sheet and freeze until very firm. Transfer to a freezer bags, label, and freeze.

I’ve tossed frozen figs into smoothies for a delicious new flavor. They blend well with bananas. You can also stew them over low heat with a natural sweetener and use as a pie filling.

5. Blackberries

We’ve been blessed over the past four years to live in a house that has thousands of wild blackberries growing along the field fencerows behind us each spring.

Freezing has always been my preferred method for preserving them. Rinse and gently pat try. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Transfer to a freezer bag, label, and freeze.

One of my favorite smoothie flavors includes blackberries. They also make a wonderful homemade salad dressing recipe, and who could forget the iconic blackberry cobbler?

Be sure to get a few fresh summer fruits and berries into your freezer now, and enjoy the fresh and delicious flavor all year long.