antioxidants | Au Naturel Essence

It’s the end of berry season here in the northern hemisphere.

I’ve been busy buying in bulk, washing and freezing berries all season. I managed to get some raspberries, but most of the berries are blueberries and strawberries. I like to stock up when I can get the berries fresh and then freeze them for the off-season. It’s my way to stocking up on fresh antioxidants!

I thought it was time to take stock of my efforts over the summer.

I’m still in a bit of shock to find out that I have SEVENTY-TWO bags of berries in my deep freezer. In fact, there’s not much else in the deep freezer at all! This is kind of like what our freezer looks like right now (it’s packed!).

On average, we consume a bag of berries each week. Assuming we stick with the same rate, we’ve got more than a year’s supply of berries! 🙂

I love summertime. It’s sunny, hot and there’s lot of fresh fruit!

Freezing fresh fruit

Ever since we ended up owning a deep freezer (the first one we owned was left behind by the last tenants of the house we moved into), I’ve been stockpiling frozen fruit.

I love to add blueberries and strawberries to my smoothie in the morning. Berries are definitely in my list of my favorite beauty foods. They are full of antioxidants and they add a natural sweetness to the drink.

However, for most of the year, it’s hard to find fresh fruit that’s in season. There’s always frozen fruit available to buy, but why would I buy that in the winter when I could freeze my own fresh berries during the summer?

Buying in Bulk

During the summer, for the few short months when fresh fruit is available at a decent price, I buy at least double what I need each week. I wash all of it and chop it if required. Then, I lay the fruit out on a cutting board for a few hours to let it dry out a bit. Once it’s dry, I pack it into plastic baggies and store it in the freezer.