Frozen fruitiness

Its the height of summer, when all those tasty fruits and berries are in season and you can find them all over your local farmer's market and grocery produce section. Sadly, a lot goes to waste if you don't eat it all fast enough. Especially fruits that tend to ripen quickly like plums, peaches and apricots. For that same reason, stores often put those fruits on special as they start to near the end of their shelf life and you can get a great deal on tons of sweet fruit. But what to do with it all if its more than you can eat before it goes bad? Why freeze it of course! I'm an avid canner. I love to pickle and make my own fruit butters, jams, jellies and preserves. So these sales and bargains on fruits are just Heaven in my eyes. However, I don't always have the time to stand over a stove making them into something to be stored up for later. So when I found out you can freeze fresh produce to be used later, I jumped on learning how! Its very easy, and you don't need a lot of equipment.

For basic fruit processing and freezing you will need: Sharp knives, a good cutting board (food grade plastic cleans up like a dream!) large bowls (for holding fruit of course), strainers, a large pot for boiling water, a bowl of ice water, freezer bags and baking sheets. Also, if you don't want your fruit to brown, some ascorbic acid is a good idea. Its a powder readily found in the canning section of your local grocery store. A good optional tool is an apple corer/peeler/slicer.

The fruit that I am going to freeze pretty well runs the gamut of preparations. I found some great deals at Sam's club Sunday and I wasn't about to let any of that go to waste! The fruits I will be working with are: Gala apples, raspberries, strawberries, black velvet apricots and black plums. Try to find ripe fruit that isn't too soft, or bruised and without too many icky blemishes that might promise of rot.

We'll start with the strawberries. Wash and thoroughly rinse your berries and pat them dry.

Next you need to hull the berries, which means to remove the leafy bits and the hard core connected to them. Now you can buy strawberry hullers in the fancy tool section of any store that sells fancy kitchen tools. However, all you really need is a good parring knife. Insert the knife just at the edge of where the leaves overlap the top of the berry, and only go about a half inch or so deep. Carefully guide the blade around the top of the berry until you've cut a circle around the leafy part. Very carefully angle the blade up just a touch until the top of the berry pops off and the hull is removed. You can also just cut the top of the berry off but that wastes fruit.

Now just arrange the fruit on a baking sheet that will fit into your freezer. Try to keep the fruit from touching. Then just pop in the freezer for about two hours, or until frozen through. After that, just place in a labeled freezer bag and return to the freezer. These should keep for at least six months. 

For the raspberries (Or any berry like that, or even blueberries) you can just spread out on the sheet and freeze once they've been washed and patted dry.

Now peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines are a different matter. These soft fruits should be peeled before they are pitted, sliced and put on the trays to freeze. And peeling is not the easiest thing with these rather delicate fruits.

First you want to score the skin with a parring knife by slashing an "X" across the bottom of the fruit.

Next, using a slotted spoon, dunk the fruit into boiling water and leave for forty seconds or up to a minute for firmer fruits. A good idea is to hold it on the spoon in the water, x side up. The skin will start to peel back when its ready to pull out.

Immediately plunk those babies into a bowl of ice water. I work in batches personally. I'll boil off about six, going one at a time, and then putting them in the ice bath as they're finished. Let them sit in the bath for about a minute to cool off.

After the minute is up, the peel should just slide right off. This is very messy, I will warn you. And if you're working with fruits that are a bit reddish, you will look like some kind of horror movie villain when you're done! I do not recommend wearing white or anything pale colored, and definitely wear an apron. This is also very sticky work, so be prepared to wash your hands frequently.

Once the plums and apricots were peeled, they were cut into quarters, pitted and laid out on the sheet like I did with the berries and the transferred into the freezer.

Apples are pretty straight forward. You peel them, core them, slice them and place them on the tray. You can treat them with ascorbic acid to keep them from browning, or a little lemon juice. I used my nifty apple corer/peeler/slicer, as it cuts down on the fuss and mess!

Once everyone is frozen, the last thing you have to do is place them in freezer bags, and be sure to label them, especially if some of the fruit looks a bit similar. You'd hate to go to make a nice plum tart but realize too late you pulled out apricots. With the skin gone and the fruit cut up, trust me its an easy mistake!

Freezing excess fruits is a simple, economical way to get the most of the season's sweetest offerings. But its not just fruit that can be frozen in this way. Use it to flash freeze vegetables from your garden or those you catch in a great sale. Buying in bulk is a great way to save money, and with the right tools and know how, you can preserve them for the months ahead for you and your family to enjoy!

Brightest Blessings!