How to Clean Strawberries Quickly and Easily

If you didn’t know better, you might think that those perfectly plump, ripe, and appealing strawberries you brought home from the grocery store are clean and ready to eat. Spoiler warning: they most certainly are not.

Commercial strawberries are one of the biggest offenders when it comes to retaining pesticide chemicals and other nasty things, and that means you’ve got to wash them.

But even if you grow your own strawberries at home, and do so organically, giving them a good wash and rinse is still non-negotiable: they’ll have dust, dirt, bug, and bird poop – maybe even a few live insects on them!

Berries of all kinds are hard enough to grow and they can be surprisingly difficult to wash because they are so fragile, strawberries included. But you don’t need to sweat it if you follow my step-by-step instructions below. I’ll tell you how to do it quickly and easily in this article.

Never Wash Strawberries Until You Are Ready to Use Them!

Until you’re ready to eat them or have a plan to preserve them, don’t wash your strawberries as soon as you bring them home or pick them.

Strawberries are highly absorbent, and when they absorb moisture from the washing process this will actually jumpstart the process of decay despite you getting rid of germs and other contaminants.

After you knock the dust off of them, leave your strawberries just as they are until it’s time to get down to business. That said, try to wash and then process your strawberries at the peak of freshness for best quality!

Kitchenware and Supplies

You just need a few things out of your drawers and cupboards to do a good job of washing strawberries quickly and easily. Gather the following and you’ll be ready to go…

Colander: any sizeable colander will work for washing a good-sized batch. Just make sure it’s clean.

Bowl: you’ll need one large mixing or utility bowl to give your strawberries a soak prior to the final rinse. Any kind of bowl will do, made of any material, as long as it will hold water and it’s large enough to hold the colander.

White Vinegar: white vinegar is a must-have for washing berries, including strawberries, and all other kinds of fruit as far as I’m concerned.

White vinegar has proven germ-killing power and won’t change the taste of your strawberries at all. It makes a huge difference, so make sure you get some!

Sink: you’ll give your berries a final rinse under the faucet in your sink.

Cutting Board: a large cutting board comes in handy for letting your strawberries dry completely after washing and rinsing. If you don’t have one big enough, use a baking sheet instead.

Paper or Cloth Towels: paper towels or 100% cotton kitchen towels are needed to line your cutting board or baking sheet for effective drying, and you’ll also use them to blot the berries dry.

If you’re using paper towels make sure they don’t leave lint everywhere or fall apart when they get a little damp. If you’re using cloth towels, don’t use your best because strawberry juice stains pretty terribly.

Okay, that’s all you’ll need! The instructions in the following section will walk you through the proper washing procedure step by step.

Instructions

Step 1: Discard bruised or moldy strawberries. Take your bunch of strawberries and start sorting through them.

Don’t trim them, slice them or do anything else right now except search through them for bruised, moldy or defective berries. Throw those in the trash.

If they make it all the way through the washing procedure, they’ll still be unsafe to eat and then can potentially facilitate decay in other berries, maybe ruining the whole batch!

Step 2: Fill bowl with water, add vinegar.

You want to add one part of white vinegar to every four parts of water, but before you make that calculation you must leave enough room for displacement when you drop the colander in. Once you’ve added the vinegar to the water, give it a quick stir to make sure it’s fully blended together.

Step 3: Load colander. Take your sorted produce and load it into the colander. Strawberries are fairly tough as far as berries go so you don’t need to worry about crushing them unless you load them really heavy or handle them carelessly.

But, if you can’t wash them all at the same time, you’ll just need to repeat these steps to do the whole bunch in a couple of batches.

Step 4: Soak strawberries in water-vinegar solution. Lower the colander into the bowl containing the water and vinegar. Give the berries a few gentle tosses with your hands to make sure they’re all immersed.

Set a timer or watch the clock and let the berries soak for 20 minutes. If they are in any longer, they will start to get soft and absorb too much water, but if you take them out sooner than that the vinegar might not do the job on all the germs.

Step 5: Remove strawberries from bowl. Once the 20 minutes is up, take the colander out of the bowl and transfer to the sink.

Step 6: Rinse strawberries thoroughly under running water. Next use the faucet or a sprayer, if you have one, on a gentle setting and rinse off the berries thoroughly. Carefully turn them with your hands to make sure you get all traces of the wash water and vinegar off of them.

Also, make sure you don’t have the stopper set in the drain so the rinse water doesn’t start backing up over the colander.

Step 7: Shake off excess water, let drain. Once you‘re sure you’ve given all the berries a good rinse, gently shake the colander to help get rid of the excess water, then set it back in the sink to let them drip dry a little more.

Step 8: Line cutting board with towels. While the strawberries are draining in the sink, take a second to line your cutting board or baking tray with your paper towels or cloth towels.

Step 9: Place strawberries on cutting board. Next, take the strawberries out of the colander one at a time and spread them out on the towel-lined cutting board or baking sheet. They will stay here until they are dry.

Step 10: Blot berries dry with towels. Once you have all of the berries unloaded, grab another paper towel and gently blot the berries dry. This will greatly accelerate the drying process.

Step 11: Let berries fully dry. Now all that’s left to do is leave your strawberries where you have them until they are totally dried. Depending on the conditions and temperature in your home, this should only take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Step 12: Done! Once your berries are fully dry they are ready to eat, preserve, or use in recipes!

Store or Use Your Strawberries As Soon as They are Dry

Remember what I said above: as soon as your strawberries are fully dry it’s time to eat them, store them or use them. Washed strawberries will degrade quicker on the counter or in the refrigerator than they would if left unwashed.

Naturally, if you preserve them by canning, freezing, dehydrating or any other process that will significantly slow or halt that process, then you can store them for a much longer period of time.

Don’t Toss Strawberries That Get Bruised or Damaged During Washing

One last tip: you don’t need to throw out any strawberries that get bruised or damaged during the washing process. Only toss the ones that are bruised, moldy or otherwise bad prior to washing.

Assuming they are good going in, they are good coming out even if they are no longer perfect. You just need to use them in the right way.

Those bruised berries are still good to eat right out of hand, or you can process them into a jam or jelly, use them in a smoothie, make frosting, or do anything else that you normally do with them. Waste not, want not!