A tip for freezing strawberries

Anyone else planning on buying strawberries this week at King Soopers or Sunflower Market and freezing them? A dollar per pound is about as low as they go, so I usually buy a bunch and freeze for smoothies and whatnot. Can’t say I expected to see that price this early in the year, though!

I had a cooking epiphany the other night: typically when I freeze strawberries, I just wash them, cut off the tops and then freeze whole. Well, I only ever use frozen strawberries for smoothies, homemade ice cream, or frozen yogurt – all things that I usually end up pureeing the strawberries for.

I realized that instead of freezing them whole I’d save a lot of wear and tear on my blender if I quartered them before I froze them! So I’m a little slow, but I’m glad I finally figured it out.

I cut and froze about 7 lbs of strawberries, and about 12 oz of blackberries.  I’ll probably head to King Soopers before the sale is over to buy some more blackberries.  We love summer fruit cobblers, but I rarely make it with fresh fruit… I try to buy blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries when they’re at rock-bottom and then freeze so I can use them whenever I want, not just when it’s on sale.

Got any other tips and tricks for freezing fruit?