There are a lot of blueberries in the trunk, which means that they are the mother of this blog post.
We were lucky enough to be asked to go to a nearby blueberry orchard and pick as many blueberries as we wanted. On a beautiful, dewy morning in the country, on tree-lined rolling hills, we picked over 70 pounds of berries in just a couple of hours. When we got home, I saw 70 pounds of blueberries right in front of me. Of course, it’s a beneficial thing to have…
Do you have no idea what to do with all those blueberries?
You might still have blueberries from last year that you need to use up.
Or a huge blueberry patch full to the brim with blueberries?
I’ll talk about all the ways to keep fresh blueberries for a long time, from freezing to canning to drying them out. Besides that, I’ve also listed a lot of different ways you can use your stored berries!
Blueberry Preparation and Tips in General
The first thing that needs to be done after picking is to wash and sort. This means getting rid of any stems, rotters, leaves, or bugs. I use my big harvest bowl to wash the berries by swirling them around in it. Stems and other junk float to the top, where they are simple to remove. I wash the berries and put them in a strainer to drain. Then I put them in another big bowl to store them until I’m ready to use them.
Wash the berries just before you use them.
And, as with all fruits and vegetables, the taste and nutrients are better when they are picked and stored quickly. They are little time bombs that are going off.
Freezing Blueberries
If you have room in your freezer, this is my favorite way to keep blueberries fresh. They last about two years in our deep freezer.
Tips for Freezing Blueberries
To freeze blueberries, get rid of as much water as you can and put them in quart freezer bags with a zipper top (not just “storage” bags) or my favorite freezer-safe, BPA-free, reusable freezer containers (love ’em!). They won’t stick together as well if they are dry. Take out as much air as you can, close the bag, and put it in the freezer. My mom takes a straw and quickly caps it to get rid of the air. I like to use my hands to gently squeeze out the air.
Some people might want to freeze the berries one at a time on a baking sheet and then store them in zip-top bags in the freezer. Also, if you do this, make sure the baking sheet has parchment paper on it or the berries could freeze right to it. I don’t think this method is worth my time. Even if they are frozen together in the bag, blueberries are so tiny that all it takes to separate them is a light tap on the edge of the table.
The Best Ways to Use Frozen Blueberries
Make Jam Later? Did you know that you can freeze the berries until you’re ready to make jam or preserves? I think making jam would be a wonderful project for the middle of winter.
Baking: If you don’t want blueberry juice to turn baked goods totally blue, thaw the blueberries first and then rinse them in a colander several times until the water is quite clear. Then let the berries dry out before you use them. You can use these in muffins, cakes, quick breads, pie, and any other recipe that calls for fresh berries.
Easy Fruit Baked: Peaches, pies, and crisps | Blueberry cobbler on a cool fall day Sunday morning is a wonderful time to treat yourself or try my super-healthy version.
Blueberry Syrup: Blueberries that have been frozen can be cooked and then used to top ice cream, pancakes, french toast, and other foods. Just boil and mash them until the juices come out. Then, add sugar or honey to taste. And cloves. And butter. Or orange peel…
Take a handful of frozen berries out of the freezer and leave them out overnight to thaw. The next morning, you’ll have blueberries that are ready to be mixed into your food.
I really enjoy sweet apple sauces, like blueberry apple sauce. During apple season, take out a bag of frozen strawberries and make blueberry applesauce at home! There should be three to four apples for every blueberry.
Ferment Them: [You can use fresh or frozen blueberries to ferment them.] This will give your body beneficial bacteria. Oh Lardy has this guide that you should follow!
For blueberry lemonade, cook the berries slowly, crush them, and strain the juice through a sieve.
The best thing about summer is sorbet, ice cream, and popsicles, for sure.
Blueberry Preserving
Blueberries stay fresh for a long time if you can. You can also take more than one way.
Blueberry jam
Blueberries don’t need commercial pectin to thicken when they’re cooked down because they already have enough pectin in them. Also, cooking the fruit down that much brings out a lot of wonderful tastes that you won’t get with pectin. Check out Northwest Edible Life’s How to Make Pectin-Free Jam for more ideas in this area. Embrace creativity and experiment with your preserves.
If you want to make regular, always tasty Blueberry Jam with honey instead of sugar and no extra pectin (along with how to can it!), I suggest you use this recipe: Honey-Sweetened No Pectin Blueberry Jam.
Use cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom to make your jam more interesting. To make it taste even better, add the zest and juice of a lemon, lime, or orange. You could also use jalapeño, lavender, or even thyme to make it more interesting.
Check out fermented blueberry jam! This simple lacto-fermented blueberry jam can be made by following the steps at Cultures for Health. It will keep in the fridge for months.
You can find a recipe with more sugar than fruit and pectin in the Ball Book of Canning. This book is also a useful resource for learning how to safely can food.
How to Make Blueberry Jam
I use maple sugar that I crush in a blender to make 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of blueberry jam, a few drops of vanilla extract, and 2 to 3 tablespoons of milk or water. Mix well to make a glaze frosting for cakes.
Standard Ways to Make Breakfast: English muffins, toast, crumpets…
Blueberry Margarita: I don’t understand why strawberry margaritas are so popular. Blueberries and lime go together just as well! For every cocktail you make, add one tablespoon of jam. Sure, really! The mixed kind works best for this.
That’s right, thumbprint cookies are a wonderful way to use blueberry jam. You can make them Vegan, Paleo, or just “normal.”
Desserts: Blueberry jam can be used to make tartlets, Rugelach, or even cakes with jam inside them. If you want to make Grain-Free Raspberry Crumble Bars, try this recipe from Deliciously Organic. But use blueberry jams instead.
Add a spoonful of blueberry jam to your pan sauce and mix it in. Serve the sauce on top of pork chops or pork tenderloin.
Canned blueberries in syrup or juice
If you like to can, blueberries in syrup are a useful thing to have on hand. They can be used in different ways than blueberry jam. You don’t have to add any sugar to the blueberries when you can. You can use heavy or very light syrup, or even water. About How to Can Blueberries can be found at Simply Canning. She writes her “syrup” recipes with white sugar, but I’d use delicious honey instead.
How to Use Canned Blueberries?
You can use canned blueberries the same way you would use frozen ones. To cook them, take them out of the sugar and drain them. Save the syrup, though—I bet it tastes great! Afterwards, let the berries dry out.
Blueberries Being Dried Out
One of my favorite ways to keep things fresh is to dry them out. It’s probably because it’s easy, the results are always good, and storing dried goods doesn’t use any extra energy.
Regarding Blueberry Dehydration
When it comes to easy dehydrating fruit, there are two main choices. One way is to dry them on low heat to keep the fruit “raw.” The other way is to dry them at a higher temperature, which will stop the enzymes from working and let you store the dried fruit for a lot longer without it turning brown or going bad. If you want to fully dry blueberries, you must cut them in half first. If you don’t, they will not finish. From what I’ve seen, raw-dried foods only last a month or two.
Of course, you can only control things in this way with a high-end dehydrator. Investing in an Excalibur Dehydrator a few years ago was one of the best things I’ve done to preserve food. It really changes everything, and I can’t picture harvest time without it!
Over the past few years, I’ve tried three different ways to dry blueberries and have chosen my best. The first thing I did was put the blueberries in the dehydrator without any other work being done. They turned out pretty good, though they were more flat and papery than round. It took a long time for them to dry out.
I used the second way, which was to cut the blueberries in half and then dry them. Besides taking a long time to make, they were thin, just like the first batch. They were also difficult to eat because they were cut in half and made into small pieces. They did dry out faster, though—about half as long. If you want to dry the berries in a “raw” setting, use this process.
I did some study this year and learned that heating the blueberries first makes them round, chewy, and dried. I read that I should boil the berries for 30 seconds and then put them in a bath of ice to shock them. I really dislike putting things in ice baths. This method doesn’t work for me because we don’t have an ice maker, and it takes more time and dishes. I chose to follow the same lead and use the steamer instead! It worked out really well. In the end, I didn’t need to cool the berries in an ice bath because they were going to be dried on the fruit setting of the dehydrator anyway.
How to Dry Blueberries (the way I like to do it)
Berries should be at room temperature to begin. I set up my steamer pot to cook the blueberries to dry them out. It took four cups of blueberries at a time, which was just the right amount for one dehydrator pan and the steamer basket. I steamed them for one minute, then moved them around and steamed them for another minute or two. There is a thin line between steaming the berries to make the skins soft and making them into mush. After being steamed, they should still be whole, but the color should be more red and they should be plumper.
They were then put right on the dehydrator tray, where I spread them out a bit and turned it on. There are 9 plates in my dehydrator, and each one can hold 4 cups of berries. That means that 36 cups of berries can be dried at once. It took mine about 24 hours to dry out.
Food won’t all dry out at the same time; that’s exactly what will happen. Just before they’re 3/4 done, I check the berries and take out any that are already cooked. This way, they don’t get too done, which they can and will. Many of my blueberries had skins that had puffed out, but the outside was already cooked (at first it looked like they weren’t), so make sure you check them out. The best way to tell if it’s done is to feel it. A little give is fine, but anything that feels like an earlobe (sorry, but that’s the best way to describe it!) needs more time. If you’re not sure about one, eat it. Also, this will help you learn when you’re done!
Ideas for Using Dried Blueberries
If you’re making granola, be careful not to cook the blueberries with the rest of the mixture. Instead, add them at the end, after the granola has been baked.
Fruit and nut trail mix is something we always have on hand. I think it would be wonderful to mix big flakes of coconut, almonds, chocolate chips, and home-dried blueberries.
Pancakes and muffins: First soak them in warm water for an hour to get the best results.
On Salads: Dried fruit tastes excellent with fresh green salads!
Fruit leather with blueberries
One of my all-time favorite leathers is blueberry fruit leather, which only needs a little honey to make. Some fruits, like apples, are excellent in leather on their own, so you don’t need to add them.
How to Make Fruit Leather with Blueberries
To begin, cook the blueberries in a big pot. Add a little water to the bottom to help them start to cook and keep them from burning. It will take about 12 to 25 minutes of cooking the berries until they burst, letting out their juices and turning into a sauce. Help them along with a potato masher.
Once the berries are fully cooked, take a taste to see how sweet they are already. If they’re not sweet enough, keep adding honey until you reach the amount you want. I use about 1 tablespoon for every 2 cups of berries most of the time. The last thing to do is to mix the berries. An immersion blender is the best tool for this because you can leave the berries in the pot the whole time. If not, let the berries cool down a bit and then blend or process them in a food processor.
Put the sweetened, mashed blueberries on a leather sheet for the dehydrator. Spread them out with a spoon. Because I like my leather to look like Fruit by the Foot, I spread it out into a big square that I will then cut into strips.
Dry it out until the top is no longer sticky, which usually takes 12 hours. When I dry my leather, I don’t flip it over because I don’t need to with the Excalibur. While I don’t know much about oven-dehydrating, I do know that it can be done well if that’s what you have.
Carefully peel the leather off the sheet and set it on a big cutting board when you’re done. When I make fruit leather strips, I like to cut off the wavy ends to make them square. For this job, a pizza maker is the best tool ever! I cut them into 1.5-inch to 2-inch strips, roll them up, and put them in a jar with a wide mouth (so I can reach the bottom!). I packed them in tightly, ensuring they remained rolled up like sardines.