How to Use 40 Lbs of Strawberries

It's berry season, and great deals can be had on strawberries from farm stands and U-Pick farms across the country. Buying in bulk from local farmers when produce is in season is one of the very best ways to save tons of money in the long run. Any shopper who has made the commitment to eat locally knows that canning, freezing and drying foods are invaluable tools for fulfilling that commitment., but buying such perishable items as berries in bulk can be a disaster if there isn't a plan in place for preserving and storing them for the rest of the year.

Before any strawberries are brought into the house, a plan for processing them quickly and efficiently must be in place. A list of possible uses should be made, and the family's favorites chosen and decided upon. A sample of such a list would look like this:

Wine

Jam

Fruit and Honey Spread

Dried Whole Berries for Snacking and Baking

Dried Ground Berries for Flavored Powder in Yogurt and Smoothies

Frozen Whole Berries for Shortcake or Ice Cream Topping

After the products that will be made are decided, the timeline should be established. A sample timeline would look like this:

Sort Berries

Wash and hull wine berries, smash them, and set them up in the fermenter with other ingredients

Wash, hull and slice berries for drying, fill dehydrator trays and start drying

Wash, hull, and slice berries for freezing, pack them into labeled bags or containers and freeze

Wash, hull and smash jam berries, start canner boiling while doing that. Prepare jam, fill jars and process

Clean kitchen and check dried berries, rotating trays if need be

Then next day, all the jars of jam and preserves should be wiped clean, and the seals checked. They should be labeled and stored in a cool dark place. The dried berries can be stored in mason jars in the same place that canned goods are stored. The wine should be transferred to a secondary fermenter a week or so later. Instructions in the wine recipe should be followed closely.

When the strawberries are brought home, they should be immediately sorted into piles for these uses. The overripe ones are best for wine, jam and other preserves, and the perfectly ripe ones are the best for drying and freezing. If any are too firm and not yet ripe, they can be stored in the refrigerator until the next day when they can then be processed. Care should be taken not to bruise or crowd these berries though, because they can mold and start to rot in as little as overnight even when in the fridge.

After the berries have been sorted into groups designated for each use, they can be washed, hulled, and cut for each application. For wine, jam and preserves, they just have to be smashed into puree. Fruit like the strawberry is very soft and easily pureed to the appropriate consistency with a potato masher. To dry strawberries, it's best to cut them into slices or halves before laying them on the dehydrator trays. After they are dried, it's easy to make strawberry powder just by grinding them in a spice or coffee grinder. Strawberries can be frozen whole or sliced or smashed, all with good results.

It is best to pick the berries in the early morning, knowing that they will have to be processed and stored as quickly as possible. Fresh ripe strawberries that have just been picked are very perishable and can easily spoil if a cook procrastinates when it comes to processing. Strawberry picking day should be set aside as strawberry preserving day as well, so all the equipment and planning should be in place before they berries leave the field.

In one day, a family can preserve and store enough strawberries to provide them with jam and snacks for the entire year. They will have set their minds at ease concerning exactly what is in their products, saved considerable amounts of money by buying in season and in bulk, supported local farmers and the local economy by buying from their friends and in their neighborhood, and will have access to organic and healthy berries for months to come.