Blueberry Pickin'

Every year beginning in early May and continuing through late June the blueberries begin ripening.  Each afternoon we circle our six blueberry bushes with buckets and pick and pick and pick.  Russ absolutely hates picking blueberries.  I don't mind it a bit.  Our bushes have grown large and unruly.  We need to prune them back so harvesting blueberries is an easier task.

It does take quite a while to pick, but that's okay with me.  At the end of the day, it is peaceful, relaxing, and rewarding.  As a bonus, Benjamin comes out and picks with me and we're able to discuss how things went at his work and mine.  We're able to talk about current events while going through the otherwise mundane task of berry picking.  It is interesting to hear the perspective from a college freshman regarding the latest headlines.  It gives me hope for the future.

Blueberries, fortunately, don't ripen all at once.  Some are dark blue (ripe) while others are in varying shades of ripeness - from green to peach-colored to pink.  The nice thing about blueberries is that you can pick them when they are not totally blue (but close) and they will continue to ripen.  We bring them inside, pour them into a colander, wash them up nicely, and leave them in the vegetable sink overnight.  The next day any that had a tinge of red, has turned dark blue.

Each day for weeks we pick a quart of nice blueberries.

After washing them, we freeze them on a tray and then, once frozen, we use a spatula to scrape the frozen blueberries into a gallon-sized ziploc bag and put into the deep freeze.  This way they are individually frozen and can be poured and measured for recipes.  We have several gallons of blueberries already in the freezer with many more to come.

In addition to snacking on them plain, we'll make blueberry muffins and pancakes, coffee cake, tarts, pies and smoothies.  Tonight, Tricia made homemade chocolate ice cream with fresh-picked blueberries and blackberries.  Sounds like a strange combination, but it works!  I had more than one bowl.  Tomorrow when I get home I'll go pick another quart.  I was surprised to learn that if you take care of your blueberry bushes, they'll live and produce berries for 40 - 50 years!  I'll be almost 104 when our bushes play out.  

Thornless Blackberry Harvest is Underway

A couple years ago we planted two thornless blackberry bushes.  They were cultivars called Arapaho and were developed by the University of Arkansas.  Every blackberry bush I've ever been associated grew wild along fence rows and had thorns.  These are different - we planted them in the yard and they have absolutely no thorns.  Last year they produced a few, fat, juicy berries.  This year they have put out new canes and have gotten larger.  The berries are also numerous.  Each day we pick them to try to stay ahead of the birds who have also discovered them.

One of the two bushes, loaded with berries

First, they turn red and then black.

The berries are big and juicy.  We'll normally eat one while picking.  It is sweet and juicy and warm from the summer sun.

I hope we are able to keep it growing so that it gets bigger and spreads out.

We've just started to pick, but we'll bring them inside and wash them and then place them on a tray in the freezer.  When adequately frozen, we use a spatula to remove them from the tray and put them into zip loc bags, the gallon size.  They are individually frozen so they are easy to measure out to make pies or cobblers.

It is hard to beat a homemade blackberry pie and a cup of coffee!