Spring 2015 Blueberry Preview

Out with the Old and in with the New

The torrential rains have wreaked havoc on our Cornish Cross meat birds.  They say one man's feast is another man's famine.  While we may have a 'chicken famine,' the blueberries are really enjoying the wet weather and have responded by putting out lots of bright green new growth.  It seems like they have added about 1/3 of their height/width in new growth.  I attribute that to the wet spring coupled with a good fertilizing regimen using composted chicken litter compliments of our laying hens.

New growth on the blueberry bushes

The blueberry bushes have responded by adding more than new branch and leaf growth.  They are loaded up with berries!  No, they aren't the distinctive blue color from which they get their name yet, but the little bushes are drooping with the weight of all the berries.

Blueberries!

Let's take a closer look.  We'll be busy picking in a few short weeks.

And that reminds me.  We still have almost a gallon of blueberries in inventory in the freezer from last year's crop.  We pick them, wash them, and lay them out on trays to freeze.  When frozen we scoop them up with a spatula and they are individually frozen.  Then we put them in gallon freezer bags.  That makes it easy to measure for recipes.  

The last remnants of the 2014 Blueberry Crop

We make blueberry smoothies, blueberry pancakes, and blueberry muffins for breakfast.  It is a tasty and healthy berry that comes right out of the backyard. Well, we need to eat up the gallon remaining to make room for the blueberry crop that will be coming in.  We decided to make something new - Blueberry Scones!

I used THIS RECIPE FROM FOODNETWORK.COM and we really enjoyed them for breakfast Saturday morning:  Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze.  You can click on the link above and try them.  They were easy to make and very tasty - a great alternative to muffins or pancakes and they go great with coffee or hot tea.  Here they are right out of the oven, cooling before we put the lemon glaze on top:

Hot out of the oven

Here is a closer look.  You can observe how the plump, flavorful berries have burst, allowing the color and flavor to bleed into the scone.  The aroma filled the kitchen and drew Benjamin in quickly. We didn't have to call to tell him they were ready!

Almost ready to eat

We plated the Blueberry Scones on Tricia's special Bluebonnet plates and drizzled the lemon glaze on top.  The glaze added a tart, sweet pop to the delicious pastry.  It wasn't long before the scones disappeared.

Homemade Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

We still have about half a gallon of blueberries to clear out of the freezer, so we'll be making more of these along with other blueberry-inspired items.  It's a tough job, I know, but I think we're up to the task.