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How to freeze watermelon. Did you catch a great produce deal and now you have waaaaaay too much watermelon? We can’t be the only ones who do this. Right?

You can freeze watermelon in a couple of different, and easy, ways. Watermelon can be frozen in slices, chunks, cubed, or pureed. It works great as a cold snack and has the texture and consistency of a popsicle so you don’t even need to thaw it unless you want to. Pureed frozen watermelon is great for making smoothies or flavoring your water.

What else can you use frozen watermelon for and how do you freeze it in the first place? Read on to find out!

How to freeze watermelon?

Well, even if we, you and I, are the only people who do this we now have a perfect solution for making watermelon last longer. So, you may ask, how do you preserve watermelon?

As you can probably tell from the title above, we freeze it. But, it isn’t just as simple as that (but don’t worry, it still easy). You just need to be a bit specific with your freezing method. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you are going to just throw it in the freezer and pull out a mushy mess.

We’ll cover our two favorite ways on how to freeze watermelon which should cover any situation you may need watermelon for in the future.

Our two preferred methods to use when freezing watermelon are in chunks or pureed. If you remember our topic on freezing Cantaloupe (or blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries), you may remember it is very similar.

What do you need?

You are going to need the following supplies:

• watermelon
• knife or melon baller
• cookie sheet (for freezing whole)
• blender or food processor (for puree)
• ice cube trays (for puree)
• freezer bags
• sharpie or marker

Freezing slices or cubes

Now, when we say you can freeze chunks of watermelon, we really mean pieces that are smaller than wedges. So you can freeze slices, cubes, balls, any shape you like. You just want to keep them small enough that they can freeze through relatively quickly. We prefer cube chunks because they are the easiest.

Step One

Decide on your desired shape and cut your watermelon into that shape. You will then want to take out a a cookie sheet and cover it with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Step Two

Line the pan with all of your cut pieces of watermelon. Keep them in a single layer and put them in the freezer for a few hours.

Step Three

When you go back to check, make sure they are pretty solid, but they don’t have to be completely frozen yet. Pull them off of the pan and place them in a large freezer safe ziploc bag.

Step Four

Write the contents and date on the outside of the bag and put them back into the freezer. That’s all there is to it!

Watermelon puree

While researching for this method we say a lot of people asking whether you can puree watermelon and freeze it. Truth is, you can. In fact, out of the two techniques we are discussing today, this is our favorite.

Step One

You are going to need to cut your watermelon into smaller pieces. They don’t have to be pretty though, just small enough to not gum up the blender or food processor.

Step Two

Place all of the watermelon chunks into the blender and fire it up. Let it run until it is completely pulverized. You do not want any solid pieces left at all.

Step Three

Pull out an ice cube tray and pour the pureed watermelon from the blender into the trays. Once they are all full, put the ice cube tray into the freezer for a few hours or over night.

Step Four

Once enough time has passed, take the tray out of the freezer and simply pop the frozen watermelon puree cubes out. Put them in a labeled (content and date) ziplock freezer bag and stick them back in the freezer.

What to do with frozen watermelon

So, watermelon is not featured in a wide variety of recipes. hat’s probably because it is so good on its own. What we like to do with our frozen watermelon is treat it as a healthy snack. Grab a handful of these on the way to the couch to watch TV and you can avoid the handful of chips or candy.

You can also use the chunks instead of ice cubes in your drink. They will give a glass of water a fruit juice infused flavor without spending grocery store prices on “fruit-infused” drinks that cost a fortune and are packed with sugar and preservatives.

But our favorite is using watermelon pureed ice cubes and using them to make smoothies. The consistency of pureed watermelon is already like a smoothie and it blends so seamlessly with a wide variety of other smoothie fruits, veggies, and even some protein powders.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few common questions about freezing watermelon.

Is it OK to put watermelon in the fridge? How long is watermelon good in fridge? Can you chill a watermelon in the freezer?

It is okay to put watermelon in the fridge. The fridge is a great place to protect your watermelon from pests and/or to avoid ending up with ants or some other creepy crawlies on your counter. However, be warned, low temperatures actually cause melons to go bad faster; usually within 3 to 4 days!

That is for cut watermelon; chunks, slices, wedges, you get the idea. An uncut watermelon will last, at the absolute maximum, for maybe 3 weeks. Buuuuuut, uncut melons can harbour bacteria inside which is no bueno.

Now, watermelon put in the freezer, whether chunks, slices, or puree, will last up to a year (8-12 months) and runs a much, much, MUUUCH, lower risk of any nasty bacterias growing on it.

If you are planning on eating it very soon and you just want to get it cold before hand, you can chill a watermelon in the fridge or freezer with no risk of it rotting or making you sick (unless you eat the entire watermelon yourself…which is probably not a bacterial sickness…nevermind).

Of course, if you are unsure about anything food related, you can always follow FDA.org guidelines to be safe.

How do you defrost frozen watermelon?

You can usually just eat the watermelon straight from the freezer; especially if it’s pureed. Watermelon is so easy to break apart already that, even when frozen, it is not very difficult to chew. But, if you want to thaw it first anyway, stick it in the fridge over night or run it under some cool water for a minute or so.

For more gardening tips

We love fresh fruit! And we assume since you are here, you do too! We always end up growing more blackberries than we intend to because we over plant to begin with. Since we always end up with a huge harvest, we decided we needed to learn how to freeze blackberries.

Steps for how to freeze blackberries

Blackberries are fantastic! They are delicious on their own, but you can also make jams out of them, put them in pie, on cobbler, or put them in a delicious fruit smoothie.

Because they were so good and because we hate wasting things, we decided to learn how to freeze Blackberries. It’s super easy to do. Just follow the steps below.

Step One

After growing blackberries, when we harvest them, the first thing we do is washed them, especially if we’re going to preserve them. Now, do you have to wash fresh blackberries before freezing? You don’t have to, but you probably don’t want to preserve all of the dirt and nasty stuff that can accumulate while being outside.

What we typically do is pile all of our blackberries into a metal colander in the sink, and then just rinse them with a steady stream of cool water.

Make sure you work you hands through all.of the blackberries and allow the water to wash over everything. This will make sure all of the dirt, bug stuff, or anything else from outdoors is washed off.

Step Two

After you’ve washed all of your blackberries and you feel like they’re clean enough, you will want to give them time to dry. You can just leave them in the colander and make sure it is elevated to allow airflow to go through the holes.

Once they are dry, you’ll want to take a 9 x 13 baking pan and arrange them in a single layer. You don’t need to cut them or anything. You can freeze whole blackberries.

Put them into your freezer and allow them to freeze overnight. It should really only take a couple of hours, but if you do it overnight you won’t feel the need to check on them every hour or so.

Step Three

Now that you had a good night’s rest, your blackberries should be completely frozen. Take the cookie sheet out of the freezer.

Now you want to transfer all of your blackberries from your cookie sheets into quart size freezer bags. We like to measure them out a cup at a time. That allows us to keep decent portions and we know how much we’re eating and how much we still have left. This information is important if you are ever doing a pantry inventory or taking the pantry challenge.

If you are freezing a lot of blackberries all at one time, you can use gallon size freezer bag. It is important to use bags designed for the freezer. They’re much better at keeping moisture out of the bag and avoiding frostbite.

Common Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions we have come across on this subject.

“How long will my blackberries last in freezer?”

Blackberries will freeze for up to 6 months without losing quality. When you’re ready to eat them, take out a frozen portion and set them in a bowl of cold water until they are soft enough to eat. You may need to change out the water a time or two depending on how many blackberries you are thawing.

“Should I wash blackberries before freezing to keep mold or other things from growing on them?”

It depends on the type of berry. As a general rule, you are going to want to wash anything that comes from outside before you freeze and preserve it. Look at it this way, if you are preserving the food without washing it you are also preserving whatever dirt, microorganisms, and other random nasty outside/bug stuff, as well.

You may even want to try a quick vinegar bath (3:1 cups ratio water:vinegar) and rinse prior to freezing to kill off any potential mold growth. Or, if you don’t like vinegar you can dunk them in hot water (120°+) for around 30 to 45 seconds.

A notable berry exception is the blueberry. Blueberries naturally have a wax over them that protects them. You can just freeze them. However, you will want to rinse them once you thaw and eat them.

“Won’t freezing destroy the antioxidants?”

Freezing will not destroy antioxidants in any fruits or veggies. In fact, some studies show that freezing, or even just refrigerating, berries, fruits, and veggies can INCREASE their nutritional value; including antioxidants.

“Why are my blackberries turning red after I freeze them?”

Brace yourself, we’re about to get all sciencey (is that a word?)!

This phenomenon is known as “red cell regression“. Essentially, sudden changes to a berry’s environment, particularly temperature, will lead to a chemical reaction that causes an otherwise black colored blackberry to revert back to a shade of red.

Research still continues on the exact chemical reaction but is not completely understood yet.

The best way can avoid having your blackberries turn red is to make sure they do not experience any drastic temperature changes in a short period of time. Some good practices to follow are:
● harvesting in the morning while the berries are still a lower temperature.
● setting up a shade prior to picking them if you are not able to harvest in the morning.
● cooling your berries in stages; like full sun to shade, shad to inside, inside room temperature to refrigerator, and finally, refrigerator to freezer.

“Ok, they’re frozen. Now, how do I defrost frozen blackberries later?”

You may be asking yourself, “how do you unfreeze blackberries without them getting mushy?”. The answer is not in how you freeze them, but in how you defrost them. A simple way to do this is to take a portion of berries and put them in a bowl on the counter top. Fill that bowl with cold water and leave them sitting for just a couple of minutes.

Come back and check on the berries and see if they have defrosted. If they are still frozen, replace the water with fresh cold water and repeat the process until your berries are defrosted but still firm.

If you do this too long, the berries can then start to retain some of that water and soak it in, and then they will become mushy.

For more gardening tips

Can you freeze kiwi? We’ve asked ourselves that same question many, many times. We are not fortunate enough to live in a tropical paradise where kiwis grow in abundance so we have to rely on our local produce department to keep us stocked up. And we ALWAYS keep an eye out for a good sale.

But kiwi gets soft and mushy after a week. Right? So what do you do with it if you can’t eat it all that quickly?

Simple.

You freeze it.

So, can you freeze kiwi? You absolutely can! It’s super easy and you have a few options to do it. You can freeze kiwi whole, sliced (or diced), or as a puree.

Can you freeze kiwi?

Kiwi is one of the easiest foods to freeze. It doesn’t need to be blanched. It doesn’t even need to be peeled (you can eat the skin)!

Frozen kiwi is a wonderfully delicious, and healthy, snack. If you have any experience freezing other fruits and berries, like cantaloupe, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries, then this will be a familiar process for you. If you haven’t, don’t sweat it, you’ll catch up just fine!

Frozen kiwis are perfect for making smoothies or treating yourself with a healthy, chip-like snack. The methods we use are freezing whole (with or without the skin), sliced (or diced), and pureed. Let’s take a look at how it’s done.

Supplies

You are going to need the following supplies:

• kiwis
• cookie sheet (for freezing whole)
• blender or food processor (for puree)
• ice cube trays (for puree)
• measuring cup
• freezer bags
• sharpie or marker

Freezing whole kiwis

Freezing whole kiwis is the easiest of all three methods.

Step One

Put your whole kiwis in a freezer bag and stick them in the freezer.

The end.

For real. It’s that easy.

You can peel them first, if you like. If you do not peel them, you will want to wash it first and make sure all of the hairs are removed. But freezing whole kiwi is really easy.

Although it is easy, this is our least favorite way to preserve kiwi. Whole kiwi takes a while to thaw and, once thawed, is extremely soggy and mushy due to all of the moisture in the fruit. The flavor is still okay but the texture experience is not nearly as good as sliced, diced, or pureed.

Freezing kiwi slices

Kiwi slices are our personal favorites. They are quick and easy to thaw. Plus, frozen kiwi chips are really, really good. Additionally, if you want to have a kiwi smoothie, you can toss them in the blender with your other ingredients and they blend pretty easily even when still frozen.

Step One

If you want to leave the skin on, make sure to wash all the little hair fibers off. If not, start by peeling your kiwis.

Step Two

Decide if you want kiwi dice, full round kiwi circles, or half moon shaped slices. Take a sharp knife and, if you want half moon slices or dice, cut the kiwi in half first. If you want full circles, just start on one end and carefully cut thin slices.

Half moon shapes are cut the same as full circle slices, you just cut it in half first. Kiwi dice can be cut by following the half moon shape method and then, while holding the slices together, turn the kiwi and make another line of slices perpendicular to the first slices.

Step Three

Whichever method you choose, the next step is the same. Line all of your kiwi pieces in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in your freezer and wait a few hours. We like to do it overnight but if it’s earlier in the day they should be good and solid in about 5 or 6 hours.

We freeze them on a cookie sheet first so that they do not stick together in the bag.

Step Four

After the kiwi has had time to freeze, take the cookie sheet out of the freezer. Next, you will want to put all of the frozen kiwi pieces in a freezer safe bag. We always make sure to write the contents, quantity, and freeze date on the outside of the bag.

Puree your kiwi

If you don’t want to use your kiwi for chips then puree is the way to go. Pureed kiwi is also a great base for baby food.

Step One

Again, wash the hairs from the skin or peel the kiwis first. The hairs come of pretty easily under a steady stream of cold water and a little bit of wiping. You can use your hands to wipe it clean.

Step Two

You can toss whole kiwis in your blender or food processor, if you like. We find we have better results if we cut our kiwis in half or in quarters first. Whichever you do, place them all in your blender and use the puree, or similar, function.

If you are having trouble getting a good, smooth mix, you can start to add a little water in to help the blades mash it up a little better.

Step Three

After your kiwis are pureed, pour them into the reservoirs of an ice cube tray. Just like with the slices, we will do a pre-freeze before the final freeze.

Stick the ice cube trays in the fridge overnight or for a few hours. They may take a little longer since they are now in a thicker liquid form and not a thin slice.

Step Four

Once frozen, remove the ice cube trays from the freezer and pop all of the kiwi cubes out. Put them all in a freezer safe bag, write the contents, quantity, and date on it and place it back in the freezer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few common questions about freezing raspberries.

How long can you keep kiwis in the freezer?

Kiwis can stay fresh in the freezer for up to a year. We always follow FDA guidelines and recommendations for food and freezing safety.

How do you defrost frozen kiwi?

There are 2½ methods of defrosting that we recommend. We say 2½ because one method isn’t exactly thawing them.

The first method for thawing frozen kiwi is to just stick the frozen kiwis in the fridge overnight. It’s slow but after a few hours your kiwis will no longer be frozen. They will, however, be pretty soggy.

The second way to unfreeze them is to place them in a bowl of cold water and set it on the counter. Check on them in about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how thick the slices are. If they are still frozen when you check, replace the water with fresh cold water and check again in another 5 to 10 minutes. Repeat this process until your kiwis is thawed. This method will also result in soggy and mushy kiwi.

The last, or second and a half, method is to not thaw them at all. Eat them as frozen chips or put the pieces in a smoothie. They will thaw in the liquid of the smoothie and will not have an unappetizing mushy texture.

Why are my thawed kiwis so mushy?

Remember, kiwis have a high moisture content so when thawed they change in texture quite a bit. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to remove enough moisture to avoid mushy kiwis once frozen. That is why we highly recommend the sliced or pureed methods.

For more gardening tips