Blueberry season

8 years ago

It is blueberry season in Maine! And the wild turkeys love it.

For the past years I have picked a lot of wild blueberries in the overgrown field at my late father’s home. Wild low bush blueberries are more work to pick than high bush but taste much better.

This year my BIL is mowing most of the field and I walked my dog up to check it out. I saw several turkeys through the brambles I walked over to see them better. We flushed out almost a hundred young turkeys. Very very cool although I think I will be picking fewer berries.

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nancyofnc

8 years ago

I planted 8 blueberry bushes a few years ago. The first year - no harvest, the second - large harvest, the third - very few fruit and with lots of bird pecks, this year - I built a deer fence (aluminum conduit and tee's to connect frame stabilized with 6' fencing posts in them) that went around 6 of the bushes and over the top secured with black zip ties. I left two bushes outside of this enclosure. In the four weeks harvest this year - I have picked 60# and there are lots more ripening. The two outside bushes are for the Red Cardinals that decimated my berries last year (so my tiny harvest) and this year had two babies. So the Cardinal family eat what they want and I have a freezer full!!!

Today I'm making mini blueberry whoopee pies. In KA beat 5T butter, 2/3 C sugar, 1 t vanilla until fluffy for 3-5 minutes. Add mix of 1 1/2 C AP flour, 1/2 t baking powder, 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t baking soda alternately with 1/3 C milk. Fold in 3/4 to 1 C fresh blueberries. Drop on parchment 1 T dough and leave room to spread. Bake 350F 12 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes then to rack. Make filling in KA: Beat 4 oz cream cheese, 3 T soft butter, 1 t lemon zest, 1 T lemon juice, 1/2 t vanilla, pinch of salt (optional: 1/8 t fresh nutmeg). Mix in 1 1/2 C powdered sugar. Put a bit on the flat side of half of the cookies and sandwich with the other half. Refrigerate covered any leftovers.

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Comments (9)

cathyinpa
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
"although I think I will be picking fewer berries" LOL! I bet you will:) What'd your pup think???:) BTW, as a birder, I would imagine there would be some tremendous birdwatching (not necessarily turkeys) too!

I cannot begin to imagine how wonderful blueberries freshly picked must taste. Almost decadent? I get them at our farmers market, and there is no comparison to what I get at our grocery store. I'd definitely be tasting while picking.

nancyofnc -- that sounds utterly fantastic.

CathyinSWPA
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I've never had wild blueberries, but I do buy blueberry juice, and that has the most flavor of anything blueberry that I've had. I buy grocery store blueberries (in and out of season), and I also store them in a special box container in the freezer. Then in the morning I put a few of them in a container with yogurt that I take to work for breakfast and add granola. The frozen blueberries help keep the yogurt cold until I'm ready to eat it, and by then, the blueberries have defrosted. One think I especially like about blueberries is that they do not seem to suffer from having been frozen. Blueberry syrup sounds especially good! I would use that on pancakes instead of putting blueberries inside. I've picked olives, but they are inedible right off the trees. My pitaya plant has buds on it again this year, but only three, meaning I will get three pitayas this year, at most, providing I pollinate them at the correct time and pick them before squirrels get to them. I only got one last year because I did not pollinate the flowers at the correct time. They have to be pollinated right after they open, which is about 8:00 PM. By morning it is too late, even if the flowers are still open.
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Well, only norar knows the family dynamics. Nothing wrong with asking? I was always given options. First choice was always Mom-mom Nellie's mile-high- banana-cream-pie if she was up to it. Summer birthday so anything blueberry crumble or strawberry shortcake was fine. Never cared much for cake since my mother did not like baking so I think I was sensitive to that 'chore'. I do freeze blueberries from my garden every year but fresh is so good. Muffins with streusel topping a favorite and I don't even care much for sweets. Tossing the berries in flour or the dry cake/muffin mix will help. Even better is adding some wet batter in the cake/muffin tins first, then tossing the floured berries into the remainder batter, then fill. Personally I don't mind bottom berries that mix with some butter for a bottom crust caramelizing. I suppose I'm an edge person brown/crusty over a cake center. Enjoy the birthday! Most important is the pleasure you give each other.
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laceyvail 6A, WV
8 years ago
My blueberries are just about done. They went all the way through blackberry season too, first time for that. And the blackberries this year were spectacular; the best crop I've ever seen, with huge berries.
basilcook3
8 years ago
All this blueberry talk really makes me want some!

Unfortunately, no blueberry picking here. Store-bought just isn’t very good!
nancyofnc
8 years ago
I've given friends much of my harvest and they all want to come and help pick - yeah right - one for the bucket, ten for the mouth, repeat. I have to rise at dawn to pick since the heat gets to this old lady rather quickly. It is very pleasant that early with the birds singing out here in the woods. We have only a few turkeys but I do hear them on occasion - not a hundred like you have agmiss.
bragu_DSM 5
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
mmm .... wild turkey and blueberries ... *grin*.

I smell a trip to Maine, by way of Kentucky ...
annie1992
8 years ago
Here blueberry picking has just started, so I'll go to one of the U-pick places and pick some. I have 6 blueberry bushes but the geese eat all the berries, the deer chew the bushes down to nothing and they aren't very happy with the soil amendment I've done to adjust soil acidity. There are so many pick your own places here that I just haven't tried very hard to raise them, I guess, and have put my energy into the raspberries (which are fenced and netted, much like Nancy does her blueberries).

Nancy, thanks for that recipe, it sounds wonderful. Do you see any reason why that wouldn't work with frozen berries, or would they thaw and compromise the dough?

Annie
Lars
8 years ago
I always store blueberries in the freezer. I used to add them to yogurt that I would take to work to have with granola, and the frozen blueberries would keep the yogurt cold until I was ready to eat it. Now I mostly use them in smoothies, and I add a bit of crème de cassis liqueur to enhance the blueberry flavor. I learned that from Ina Garten.
nancyofnc
8 years ago
Annie - frozen thawed and blotted work fine, otherwise they'd make a soggy dough. You can make the whoopee pies twice size, or even three times size. I prefer the one bite eat three mini's.

Blueberry season

nancyofnc

Comments (9)

cathyinpa

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