Learn how to freeze strawberries the right way, so they’ll last up to for up to a year in the freezer!
Strawberries are a favorite fruit that everyone loves in our family! We love to add them to our cereal, oatmeal, smoothies, and desserts. While they are available year-round, they are at their peak during the spring and summer months. To make sure our family has access to the best of the best berries all year, we freeze them.
It’s so easy to do and keeps the berries perfectly fresh and delicious!
Freezing Strawberries
You can find them fresh at your local grocery store or farmer’s market. When they are in season, they are usually more affordable too!
It’s a great time to stock up and freeze some to enjoy later.
Unfortunately, many people don’t know how to freeze strawberries properly.
If this is you, then you’ve come to the right place to learn!
When are Strawberries in Season?
Strawberry season is from spring until early fall. Although technically every strawberry plant is able to produce berries year-round, they are more flavorful & at their best during the spring and summer months.
How To Freeze Strawberries
To prep your strawberries for freezing, you’ll need:
- A large parchment-lined cookie sheet
- Strawberries
- A colander
- Huller or paring knife
- Start by rinsing the strawberries thoroughly in cold water and patting them dry with a paper towel.
You can simply wash them with water. I like to use my ozone spray bottle to remove bacteria.
Lay your berries out on a paper towel to air dry for a few minutes while you prepare your cookie sheet.
- Next, hull the strawberries. This means removing the green stem & leaves from the top of the berry. You can do this with a paring knife or special strawberry huller tool.
I’m using a strawberry huller in this post (it looks like a retractable CLAW so my boys really love it), but you can also use a simple paring knife or another tool.
You really just want the green part and very top out of the strawberry. To do that, I like to push out the claw of our strawberry huller a bit, stab the strawberry while enclosing the green stem part, and let go so it grabs ahold of the section I want to remove.
Then, I twist the huller in a circle to hull the strawberry completely. BOOM.
- Once all of the strawberries are hulled, you may need to rinse them off again really quick in case you have any random greenery pieces that are stuck to them from the hulling process. You don’t want any green parts in your frozen strawberries.
- When you’re ready, place the strawberries on a parchment lined cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer for about an hour or so.
You can freeze them longer than this if you need to. I like to do it for a couple of hours just so they will freeze quickly.
Make sure that the strawberries are not touching each other.
- Once they are frozen, you can transfer them to a freezer bag or freezer-safe container for longer storage.
That’s all it takes to properly freeze strawberries! Now you’ll have the best berries of the season all year long in your favorite recipes and smoothies!
I left my strawberries for about 4 hours because I forgot about them, but that’s perfectly fine, too. You just want them to harden up while they are separated for easier freezing and defrosting.
I just picked up a Foodsaver from Walmart (it was $80 off!!) so I’m using that in this post, but if you are using regular freezer bags and want to remove the air from your freezer bags, try using the water displacement method.
It works great at pushing the excess air out of the bag, helping the berries last longer in the freezer!
Pro tip – Label your Foodsaver bag before you vacuum out the air – it’s more difficult to write on or label the bag once the air is pulled out of it.
Now you can place your strawberries in the freezer. They’re good for up to 12 months so start looking for those strawberry recipes!
When you’re ready to defrost the berries, simply take the frozen strawberries out of the freezer and set the bag in a bowl of cold water.
I’m excited to store these berries for a batch of strawberry jam I have planned in my new bread machine! Now that you know how to freeze strawberries, what will you make?
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Thanks so much for reading this post! Have you tried freezing strawberries before?
*Post originally published August 2021, last updated June 2022.