Berry Storage

From Alton Brown's Good Eats. Works on any berry you like. Works on sliced stone fruits, too.

• Ready In: 5 hrs
• Yields: 5 lb

Ingredients

• 5  lbs strawberries
• 5  lbs  dry ice

Directions

1. Wash berries, leaving hulls intact. Dry with paper towels. Refrigerate in the coldest part of your refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
2. Smash dry ice into "snow" with a hammer or kitchen mallet. Be sure to wear insulated gloves while working with dry ice, as it is approximately -100°F Dump snow into a large metal pot. Stir cold berries into snow, maximizing contact. Place pot into a cooler or ice chest. Close but DO NOT LOCK the lid (the dry ice expands about 100x while warming up; if you make an airtight seal, your cooler might explode). Let stand 30-60 minutes until berries are rock hard.
3. Label heavy duty freezer bags with the item name and date. Lower the bags into the cooler to fill; this will keep the bags full of carbon dioxide instead of oxygen, which will minimize freezer burn. (Alternatively, transfer frozen berries to vacuum sealer bags and seal.) Store in freezer up to one year.