It’s June and strawberry picking time! It’s a great time of year to stock up your freezer with fresh fruit for smoothies. Learn how to freeze strawberries for smoothies – the quick and easy way!

If you’ve gone strawberry picking before or bought local strawberries – you know they are smaller and sweeter than the imported ones you buy in the grocery store. Homegrown strawberries are so much better the store bought variety.

Hulling all those small strawberries takes a lot of time! With only 15 minutes of hands on time, you can freeze 4 quarts of strawberries. Learn how to get those strawberries from field to freezer – fast and easy! 

Simple Washing Method First

Before eating the strawberries, I highly recommend a quick wash. I pour the strawberries into a sink full of cold water with about 1/4 cup of vinegar.

I let them soak for a few minutes and gently swirl them around in the water. Then I rinse the berries in cold water to remove the vinegar and  lay the berries on a large towel or drying mat.

It is important to only soak the strawberries for a few minutes (less than 10) – the vinegar can make them mushy if they sit in the wash for too long.

I go into more details about the fruit and veggie wash here.

The Fastest Method to Hull a Strawberry Before Freezing.

Before we can freeze the strawberry, you need to hull it (aka remove the little green top).

I experimented with several methods. Cutting the tops off- you lose a lot of time and cut off a lot of edible strawberry. Pulling the tops off does not work well.

Save yourself some time and headache. Here’s the fastest and surprisingly simple way to get the entire strawberry from field to freezer.

I did 4 quarts in 6 minutes (minus all the strawberries my kids kept eating). And Yes, I timed myself.

Here is the before:

All the strawberry tops just 6 minutes later!

Ttake the strawberry in one hand and gently twist the top in the other hand. With just a quick turn the top will pop right off without damage to the strawberry.

Here is a quick video to show you a little better:

Here’s another tip – the strawberry tops are edible and go unnoticed in your smoothie. Katie Kimball at Kitchen Stewardship shares three things her family eats that many other families throw out.

Freeze Strawberries Flat

Once the Strawberries are hulled, place them flat on a cookie sheet and freeze for an hour before placing them in your freezer bag.

If there is any wetness on the strawberries they freeze together if you skip this step. If you are confident your strawberries are dry you can skip this step.

I freeze them whole – I have taken hours to cut the strawberries up in the past. It is very time consuming.

When you mix them up in a smoothie it works just the same if they are whole or cut up. Save your time and energy and freeze them whole!

Other Hulling Methods Worth Mention

I’ve tried a variety of other ways to hull the strawberries. A few are worth mentioning.

If you’re into kitchen gadgets – check out this strawberry hulling tool. You push a button to hull the strawberry – it’s a fun strawberry design and dishwasher safe.

Here is how it works – pretty cool huh?

The straw method is another cool trick. You poke a drinking straw through the berry to pop the top off.

Its a great method if you want to impress your guests- just too time consuming if you’re freezing strawberries.

Here is a cool video that shows you how

Enjoy!

Now it’s time to enjoy those strawberries in your favorite smoothie all year long! We love using our Ninja blender everyday for simple smoothies!

I’d love to hear your favorite strawberry smoothie recipe in the comments below. Mine is

• 1/4 strawberries
• 1/4 blueberries
• 1 cup spinach
• Pea Protein powder
• Almond Milk
• Honey