Berry Picking
I was at the beach part of last week and along the way we stopped to pick up blueberries and blackberries. I missed strawberry season here so I was convinced not to miss out on the blues + blacks. We stopped to get blueberries at Champney Farms off Hwy 17 South and we got 5 quarts for $8. That’s a lot of blueberries.
After eating them by the fist fulls and then making my two favorite blueberry recipes: muffins (from page 44 in May 2008 Everyday Food) and cobbler like this one (recipe here), I threw the rest in some ziploc freezer bags. I have heard you are supposed to lay them on a baking sheet first so they don’t stick together but I was lazy and there is no way I have room for a baking sheet in my freezer anymore so in the bag they went.
And guess what? See that, they didn’t stick together at all. My mom said don’t bother laying them out and so I tried it and they are perfect frozen goodness. The blackberries we picked were from Boone Hall Farms which is off Hwy 17 North and they were huge!
They were $3 per lb. I used this Raspberry Cream Cupcake recipe which is super easy cause it starts with a boxed cake mix and then substituted the blackberries for the raspberries and popped in a flag for the 4th of July festivities. They were insanely good, as usual.
As a side note, America’s Test Kitchen on our PBS station aired their Strawberry Cream Cake yesterday afternoon and part of that episode is an explanation of heavy cream vs. whipping cream which was really interesting. (Basically, they say go for heavy cream that has been pasteurized–not whipping creams or creams that are ultra pasteurized containing any additional additives.) But back to the blackberries, the rest were bagged and frozen and even with all the juice they had even they didn’t stick together. So I see no need to lay them out on baking sheets first to freeze them before bagging them.
Finally, I saw in this week’s Connect paper a local pick your own place called Bamboo Farms and Coastal Gardens which is at US 17 South and Canebrake Road. I’m going to check it out later this week. Yum!!
5 Comments Add your own
1. Candy Glendening | July 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Lucky you! We received a large container of blackberries last summer and I popped them into the freezer - it turned into a large block :-( I really regretted not doing the cookie sheet thing. However, all was not lost, I defrosted them and turned it all into blackberry ice cream, which was a great success!
2. sarah | July 6th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Interesting Candy, I wonder why…maybe the temperature of the freezer or the amount of surface moisture? I did rinse mine but them laid them out to dry in a single layer on a towel overnight and then they sat out on the counter another day. So perhaps they were just really dry? Although, I was surprised the blackberries still broke up because they were quite juicy after the car ride back home. I don’t know, the only other thing I can imagine is maybe how cold the freezer is–ours stays insanely cold even on lower settings so perhaps they just froze quicker…grasping at straws here. I don’t know.
3. emilykristin | July 6th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
yeah, our freezer makes blocks of things too. It also freezer burns with fervor. But the scales are still weighed in its favor. Golly, I love u-picks. We did strawberries last week (our season came quite late), and I feel so satisfied putting away all those strawberries for later. I am definitely trying those cupcakes once raspberry season gets in full swing.
4. sarahjane | July 7th, 2008 at 5:16 am
Isn’t freezing something the most gratifying experience? Just knowing that they’ll be there when you really need them–right next to the frozen soups, lasagnas, and tomato sauce! Your sweets look delicious.
5. Zermaxjeria | July 25th, 2010 at 8:02 am
Hey bro.
I the new user.
Look,news Video
http://mila-kunis–nude.blogspot.com
I'm curious about your two cents. You smart cookie!
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed