November 5, 2024

Raspberries are delicious and filled with nutritional value making it a great food storage food. Unfortunately, they are only truly delicious for a few months of the year. 

Dehydration and freezing are both solid methods for preserving raspberries so you can enjoy them all year round. I personally prefer freezing my raspberries, but they will not last forever. I use my freezer as part of my food storage plan, but I know there are limitations for long-term food storage. This is why I also dehydrate raspberries and other foods for longer term food storage needs.

Now, on to how you can freeze and dehydrate raspberries. 

Getting started preserving raspberries

Below are the first steps you should take before you freeze or dehydrate raspberries.

Wash and remove debris

Place raspberries in a strainer and run under lukewarm water. Gently move raspberries around to ensure all debris and dirt is removed. 

Remove all raspberries that are bruised, spongy, or dark and place them in a separate bowl. We can use those for our freezer raspberries. 

MWAP – raspberries being washed in metal strainer

Air dry raspberries

Place raspberries on a cookie sheet and allow raspberries to naturally dry. Too much moisture will give us a not so great final product. 

How to dehydrate raspberries 

Once your raspberries have been washed, picked through, and dried, we can begin setting up our dehydration trays. Place the raspberries on your trays leaving a small amount of space around them to allow the air to circulate. 

  • Set the dehydrator to 135 degrees Fahrenheit. (or whatever the fruit setting is on your machine)
  • Allow to dry for 12-18 hours, Adjust time needed based on your humidity levels or machine type.
  • I would check at about the 9 or 10 hour mark to see how they are progressing. 

I ran a test on two different dehydrators. My Excalibur took 13 hours and my Square American Harvester took 15 hours. 

If you are wondering if you can dehydrate raspberries in the oven, yes you can. I would recommend a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit at about 6-9 hours. There are a few other dehydration methods you can try as well.

Be sure to stir or shuffle them around every couple of hours so all sides are reached with the heat. 

MWAP – raspberries lined up on dehydrator rack

It is important to note that they will not shrink like some dehydrated foods. If you are looking for shrinkage to determine if they are done, that is not the way to do it. 

Completely dehydrated raspberries are dry, crisp and paper-like. They lose a bit of their bright red color, but don’t worry – they’re okay!

I keep mine stored in small airtight containers with an oxygen absorber. You can also use a vacuum sealer to dry seal the raspberries into canning jars for long-term storage as there is a lot of extra air in a jar.

MWAP

Raspberry nutritional information

Raspberries are high in dietary fiber, rich in copper and manganese, and have Vitamins C, A, and K making them nutritionally rich. One cup of raspberries contains 8.5 grams of fiber which is about 20% of our recommended daily intake. 

Raspberries have significantly high levels of phenolic flavonoid phytochemicals such as anthocyanins, ellagic acid (tannin), quercetin, gallic acid, cyanidins, pelargonidins, catechins, kaempferol, and salicylic acid. 

Scientific studies show that these antioxidant compounds in these berries have potential health benefits against cancer, aging, inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases.

With all that raspberries have going for them including their taste, let’s get started preserving them!