The 2016 Blueberry Crop

When I discussed the blueberry bush that perished due to our fugitive hen yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t talked about our blueberry crop this year.  As our blueberry bushes get older, I would have thought that each year the production would increase.  That has indeed been the case over the past several years, but not this year.

This year we didn’t pick as many blueberries as last year.  However, the quality of the berries this year was excellent.  They were bigger, plumper (is that a word?), and sweeter!  Why is that?  I really don’t know.  There are two theories I have that I attribute to this change.  First, we got rains in the spring at opportune times.  I feel like the providential rains allowed the bushes to suck up all the moisture and direct it toward the berries.  Maybe that was the case, maybe not. 

Here are three pictures that I took back in late April after one of those soaking rains that I spoke of.  I like the way that the drops of rain decorate the leaves and berries like sparkling jewels.

A month later the blueberries turn from green and hard to red and then big and blue.

Picking blueberries each day is one of Benjamin’s jobs.  He’s not excited about it, but does it anyway.  It is a tedious job, looking through all of the bushes and picking only the ripe ones.  I keep telling him there are much worse jobs!  They don’t ripen all at the same time.  He walks out with a quart-sized container and will fill one of those up each day. 

I mentioned that in past years the blueberries have been smaller.  Since the quality is so much better this year we’ve snacked on them a lot more.  We still washed some, laid them on baking sheets, froze them, and then used a spatula to lift them and pour them into gallon Zip Loc freezer bags to be used in cobblers, muffins, pancakes and smoothies all year long.  Tricia will also cook some of them down in a pot with some honey to make a blueberry syrup.  Then we’ll make homemade blueberry ice cream with it!

The 2016 Blueberry harvest is done, but we’ll continue to eat them for months.  If I can keep the fugitive hen away from the bushes, we’ll have future harvests as well.