You don’t want your berries to go to waste since they’re in season right now. Berries will rot in a matter of days if they are not stored properly. Of course, you may store strawberries in the fridge for a longer period of time, but there are many options.
You may also preserve your berries by converting them into jam, jelly, or other delectable snacks in addition to the refrigerator. You may also place them in the freezer for smoothies later.
Try one (or more!) of these nine ways to store berries, don’t let your delicious berries go to waste.
9 Ways to Store Strawberries
As compared to apples and oranges, most berries have a relatively short shelf life; they appear to last for weeks in the right conditions. You’ll be able to avoid any loss and enjoy your berries for weeks (or months) by learning all of the best ways to store berries and how to preserve them.
1. Store Fresh in the Fridge
The ideal way to store strawberries is in the refrigerator if you know that you’ll use them inside a week, but make sure to store them properly if you do so. Strawberries can last much longer in the refrigerator if proper handling methods are used!
Washing your berries before storing is a big no-no, so make sure you know that first. Washing berries before storing in the fridge, unlike other fruits, causes moisture issues. shelf life is shortened as a result. Instead, never soak strawberries and wash them just before consuming them. They take in a lot of water, which isn’t good.
Because it keeps your berries moist, store strawberries in the crisper drawer. Keep the berries in a loosely shut container lined with paper towels and keep the stem on them.
2. Try a Vinegar Solution in the Fridge
Strawberry and other fruit storage methods are constantly being tested by consumers in order to find the best way. Some claim that soaking your berries in a 1:3 mixture of white vinegar and water before draining prolongs their shelf life.
After soaking, you’ll have to dry the berries; some people use salad spinners to speed up the process. To absorb more moisture, line the salad spinner with paper towels. After that, place them in the refrigerator.
Experimenting with using vinegar to see if it affects the shelf life of your strawberries is definitely worth a try!
3. Freeze Strawberries
You may not have time to eat your berries within a week, but you don’t want to preserve them either. Freezing berries at their peak freshness is the next best method to preserve their flavor; it also conserves the berries’ greatest.
Apart from using the fridge, freezing strawberries involves a few extra processes to ensure that your berries keep their flavor and don’t get freezer burn.
Perform the following steps.
Check through all of your strawberries, removing any soft or rotting berries. Frozen mushy stuff isn’t a good idea. Make sure not to soak your berries before washing them. Next, remove the leaves and hull them as much as possible, leaving only the white interior.
You can then dice, whole pieces, slice, or puree the strawberries after that. It’s your decision to make!
Freeze your sliced strawberries on a baking sheet for one hour. This makes it simpler to get berries from the freezer and use them. Transfer the frozen berries to your freezer’s storage container of your choice.
4. Dehydrate Strawberries
Dehydrating strawberries is another simple method to preserve them. It’s a shelf-stable snack that kids and adults will enjoy. Dehydrated strawberries are the favorite fruit of my children.
Strawberries have an easy dehydration process. Wash and hull the berries first, then slice them. Since it helps everything dehydrate evenly, try to make the slices as evenly thick as possible.
Make sure to leave enough space between each strawberry slice as you spread them out in the dehydrator. Air won’t be able to circulate and dehydrate the fruits if you don’t.
It takes between 8 and 14 hours for berries to dehydrate, so you’ll have to check them frequently and wait until there’s no more moisture left. Mold growth is aided by any moisture.
5. Make Strawberry Fruit Leather
Strawberry fruit leather was one of the first fruit leathers I ever prepared, and it’s a favorite of mine every summer. It’s a terrific way to store berries in a new way that is both tasty and nutritious for your family.
Washing and hulling the berries is part of making strawberry fruit leather. The liquid from the berries is extracted by crushing and mixing with lemon juice and sugar. Place the baking sheet in your oven at its lowest setting and spread the mix out.
I usually use scissors to chop strips like homemade fruit roll-ups for my children after I’ve covered the baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. Make Strawberry Jam
Strawberry jam is a tried-and-true method for preserving strawberries in a useable form for year-round consumption, and it’s one of the first canned recipes that rookies explore. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a generous layer of delicious strawberry jam on top is just about everyone’s favorite.
Making strawberry jam is a simple project even if you’ve never made jam before. Strawberries, sugar, pectin, and lemon juice are all you need to make this recipe! The strawberries must be washed, sliced, and chopped before being heated and crushed with a spoon. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, then add the remaining ingredients.
Lastly, finish the canning process with a ladle of strawberry jam into jars.
7. Canning Whole Strawberries
I adore to can as much as I possibly can. My heart sings with joy as I see the full pantry shelf lined with home-canned jars. It’s my new favorite method to store strawberries, and I experimented with canning whole berries for the first time last summer.
It is both versatile and simple to use.
Strawberries must be washed and hulled, just like other storage techniques. Sprinkle sugar over the top of the berries after they’ve been put into a bowl. A dusting will suffice; it doesn’t need to be a large quantity of sugar.
Continue to let the berries sit for six to eight hours, allowing the juices to release. After that, you may heat up the jars and load them into boxes. A delicious snack on its own is a can of whole strawberries!
8. Make Strawberry Pie Filling
When you add ice cream or whipped cream to strawberry pie, it screams summer–YUM!
When snow covers the ground in the winter, you can enjoy this bite of summer. Whenever the need arises, I make sure my pantry has several quarts of canned strawberry pie filling on hand because my family loves it so much.
Wash and hull the strawberries before making canning strawberry pie filling. Then, make sure the pieces you cut are decent-sized; don’t make them too tiny. Cook the fruits, sugar, and Clear Jelly together until it reaches a boil. In addition, you’ll need to add lemon juice.
When making strawberry pie filling, you can use a water bath cannedner.
9. Make Strawberry Sauce
I adore strawberries, can’t you tell? Here’s another of my favorite ways to store them. I recently learned that, above all else, I prefer strawberry sauce over syrup on my pancakes.
Wash the strawberries, hull them, and chop them up. The sauce will be thinner if you cut the pieces thinner. To create a better consistency, you might want to smash the strawberry pieces with a spoon.
Sprinkle sugar over the top of the strawberries in a mixing bowl. It will take 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the severity. It gets thicker and saucier as it sits for a longer time.
You can keep the strawberry sauce in the freezer for three months. If you prefer, you may also preserve the strawberry sauce.