This week, De Ann took Zane and me to pick some blueberries at a blueberry farm! This was a first for both of us! De Ann and I thought we would go casually pick 10 pounds, then head on over to the gym to get our workout in. Ha. Ha. Picking blueberries was our workout and it was probably a better workout than we anticipated. It was so hot!
Zane was the perfect little companion. It only took him 3 whole seconds to realize that he could go nuts and eat delicious blueberries, which are arguably his favorite food. It took him only another 3 seconds to figure out that if he hit the bushes with this random stick he found, ripe blueberries would fall off the bush and he could get handfuls much faster for his devouring pleasure.
Picking these blueberries was actually really fun in several ways because I got to brush up on my homemaking skills and make some freezer jelly, syrup, and ice cream. If you knew me, you would know that this could actually qualify me for an Olympic gold medal because if anything I make turns out (let alone 3 separate recipes), it is a miracle indeed.
Some blueberry tips that I learned from the amazing De Ann are:
- For easy freezing, rinse your blueberries and then lay them out on a baking tray flat. Lightly pat them dry if possible. Then, freeze them for 24 hours. Grab a ziplock baggie and a spatula, and then scrape the blueberries off of the tray. Do this quickly though so that the berries don't defrost! This makes perfect individually frozen berries that you can store in a gallon sized bag, while still not having to deal with a frozen chunk when preparing your favorite blueberry foods.
- Prepare your favorite vanilla or cheesecake flavored ice cream. Before putting it in the freezer to settle, place dollups of blueberry syrup in it and marble with a butter knife. Bam, blueberry ice cream.
- Put a dash or two of cinnamon into your blueberry jam to give it more of a cobbler taste.
- Go picking early in the morning!
Excuse me while we eat our weight in blueberry cheesecake ice cream!
