Freezing Strawberries For Smoothies

The strawberries are kinda petering out in my garden about now. I'm still getting some, but they are smaller and fewer. But since they are organic and I grew them, I don't want to throw even one small one out.

But what to do with the misshapen and small berries, even slightly overripe ones? Freeze them! Wash them, hull them and lay them on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Transfer the sheet to the freezer. When the berries are frozen solid, scoop them up and store in a labeled freezer bag (you don't want to skip this step- frozen they can seem very similar to other red fruits...).

All shapes and sizes are welcome in the freezer where they can join their buddies to await their next role as:

Smoothies!

Did you know if you start with frozen fruit you don't need to deal with ice in smoothies? Then you don't need the dreaded banana to thicken it up - it's all frozen fruit, baby (and yes, I'm aware there are a lot of people who adore bananas...I'm most definitely not one of them).

So for our banana-less smoothies, I usually use three different kinds of berries and will sometimes add peaches, kiwi, or apples. Just a few from each bag is enough. Then I add some yogurt or milk and some fruit juice to the blender. It's pretty thick starting from frozen fruit, so I use a spatula and more juice (or water) if needed to get a good blend going.

And those tiny, misshapen, and overripe berries? Who cares! It's all good here.

Oh, and I do this with all berries, too. But you probably knew that, didn't you?

-Jami