Depending on the variety, the harvest time for the sweet fruits lasts from May to October. Pick the strawberries including the fruit calyx and fully ripe, but not too late. Large quantities of harvest can be cooked into jam - or frozen as whole fruit or pureed. You should only use strawberries of the highest quality and make sure that they do not have any bruises. Otherwise, the delicate fruit will even rot in the freezer. Please note, however, that frozen strawberries are soft, often mushy and darker in color after thawing. This type of preservation changes the molecular structure of the fruit, but not its valuable ingredients.
When to harvest strawberries
There are different types of strawberries that either produce fruit once or produce fruit again after a short period of rest in mid-summer, i.e. H. Flowers and fruit will form again until autumn. In general, the harvest times of the individual varieties differ greatly from one another. However, all strawberries have one thing in common: When their fruits ripen, they do so all at once - so that you as the garden owner are literally inundated.
The “classic” garden strawberry (for example varieties like 'Elvira' and 'Korona') only bears once and brings a lush fruit blessing after flowering between May and June. However, this only lasts until the end of July. The multiple-bearing, more frequently flowering fruits first appear in June/July, then enter a short dormant phase and bear fruit again between August and October.
Tip:
The so-called monthly strawberries, which come from the local wild strawberry, are also remontant and even bear fruit from May to October. Its fruits are slightly smaller than those of conventional garden strawberries, but have a more intense taste.
Cultivate strawberries gently and harvest them correctly
As delicious as strawberries taste fresh from the bed, they are also extremely sensitive and can therefore be stored in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator for a maximum of two days. However, if the water-rich fruits have even slight bruises - for example, caused during picking - they often rot within a few hours. To prevent this from happening to you, you should cultivate the fruits on a dry layer of mulch such as straw.
This not only ensures that the strawberries stay clean (and therefore do not have to be laboriously washed and cleaned), but also prevents rot from developing in the bed. Harvest the fruits very carefully and place them in specially padded baskets. When picking, do not press too hard, but rather grasp the individual fruit with your thumb and forefinger and carefully cut it off with nail scissors. If you leave the fruit cup on the fruit, it will stay fresh longer.
Freeze whole strawberries
Only ripe and firm fruits are suitable for freezing. If the strawberries are already overripe, they should no longer be preserved due to the risk of rotting and should be eaten immediately. If you want to freeze whole strawberries, proceed as follows:
- fill a bowl with lukewarm water
- carefully wash the strawberries in it
- Do not wash fruits under running water,
- this creates pressure points
- After washing, dry the strawberries carefully with a kitchen towel
- Do not freeze fruits while they are wet, this will result in freezer burn
- Cut the bowl of fruit smoothly with a knife
- Leave strawberries whole or cut into pieces
- pack in an airtight freezer bag
- at best, vacuum seal
- and flash freeze in the freezer or freezer
Strawberries frozen in this way have a shelf life of around two months and should also be consumed during this time.
Freeze whole strawberries without sticking together
However, the method described above has one disadvantage: the fruits stick together when frozen and can no longer be removed individually. To prevent sticking together, you can pre-freeze the fruits individually and only then transfer them together into a freezer bag or other suitable container. To do this, place the carefully prepared strawberries individually on a plate, cutting board or baking tray with the cut edge facing down.
The fruits should not touch each other. Now put them in the freezer for two hours, then take them out again and pack them together. However, this should be done quickly, because small fruits in particular thaw very quickly - and are then particularly mushy after thawing. After decanting, the strawberries belong back in the freezer.
Freeze sugared strawberries
You can also deep-freeze the fresh fruit with sugar - then you can use the sweetened fruit for a dessert or cake after defrosting.
- Wash and clean strawberries as described
- fill into a plastic container (with lid)
- sprinkle with sugar if desired
- or pour over with homemade syrup
- mix carefully with a spoon
- Put the lid on and put it in the freezer
Tip:
You can easily make your own sugar syrup by boiling one part sugar in four parts water, dissolving it in it and finally letting the mixture cool before freezing. For that special flavor, you can also use brown cane sugar instead of white table sugar.
Freeze pureed strawberries
If you freeze strawberries whole or cut into pieces, freezing changes the structure of the fruit: after thawing, they always become soft, are mushy and produce more or less juice. Frozen strawberries are therefore less suitable for topping cakes and tarts, but you can also make the pastries with strawberry puree instead.
The sweet fruits can also be frozen pureed, which also has the great advantage of saving space. Prepare the harvested strawberries as described, but first puree them carefully with a hand blender. If you want, you can sweeten the fruit puree with a little powdered sugar and season it with freshly squeezed lemon juice. The puree can be poured into small plastic containers, portioned into ice cube trays or similar and placed in the freezer.
Make and freeze your own delicious strawberry ice cream
Such strawberry puree can be used to make delicious strawberry ice cream. There are several options for this: Fold whipped cream (whipped until stiff) and powdered sugar into the freshly pureed puree and freeze the mixture together. Stir once every few hours, after about a day the strawberry cream ice cream will be ready to eat. You can also fold the frozen, thawed fruit puree into the freshly whipped cream - in this case the ice cream will be creamier.
Tip:
Strawberry ice cream on a stick is a special refreshment, not just on hot days. To do this, fill the fruit puree (a mixture of strawberry and banana puree is also delicious) into standard popsicle molds and simply let it freeze. The he althy treat is ready and will delight the family as well as children at a children's birthday party.
Fun strawberry ice cubes from the freezer
Frozen ice cubes as an ice cube replacement are ideal for any party and look great in mineral water, sparkling wine or in a fruit punch. Strawberry puree, frozen in portions in ice cube trays, is suitable for this, as are whole fruits, which are placed individually in the compartments of the ice cube tray and filled with water, lemonade or sparkling wine. It also looks pretty if you freeze the strawberries into ice cubes together with a fresh peppermint leaf and/or a few shavings of dark chocolate.
Defrost frozen strawberries gently
Frozen strawberries can be defrosted in various ways:
- slowly at room temperature
- in the microwave
- with the help of hot water
Experience has shown that the fruits stay in better shape if you bathe them briefly in hot water and thaw them that way. To do this, put the desired amount of strawberries in a bowl and pour hot, but no longer boiling, water over them. The fruit should just be covered with the liquid. After a minute, pour out the water and repeat the procedure if necessary. By the way, strawberries become particularly mushy when you defrost them in the microwave using the defrost function.
Can strawberries be defrosted without them becoming mushy?
Unfortunately, frozen and thawed strawberries always become soft and mushy, and this cannot be prevented. This is due to the abundance of water contained in the fruits - strawberries consist of 95 percent only water - which crystallizes when frozen and thus destroys the cell structures of the fruits.
Drying strawberries in the oven
– Gentle alternative to freezing –
If you want to prevent this, you can also preserve the delicious fruit in another way: namely as dried strawberry chips. Although an automatic dehydrator is advantageous for this, a standard oven will also work. Wash and clean the desired amount of strawberries as described and cut them into slices about three millimeters thick. If you like it sweeter, dust the fruit with a little powdered sugar before drying.
Preheat the oven to a maximum of 50 °C - higher temperatures dry faster, but also destroy the valuable vitamins - and meanwhile spread the strawberry slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Now put the tray in the oven and dry the strawberries until they are elastic when pressed with your finger. However, this can take a few hours. If you want to speed it up, set the oven to 100°C and the chips should be ready in an hour and a half.
Tip:
So that the moisture that escapes during drying can escape, you should clamp a wooden spoon between the oven and the oven door.
Conclusion
Strawberries can be frozen as whole fruits, cut or pureed and thus preserved. However, freezing destroys the cell structure of the fruits, which contain a lot of water, so that they are always soft, mushy and darker in color after thawing. Unfortunately, this result cannot be prevented, but it has no influence on the valuable ingredients in the strawberries. Pureed frozen fruits can be used for a variety of baked goods, desserts, smoothies and drinks - or simply processed into delicious ice cream. Frozen strawberries also look very pretty in ice cube trays and are delicious in mineral water, lemonade, juice or sparkling wine. Alternatively, you can cut the sweet fruits into thin slices and slowly dry them in the oven as chips.
