Finding Our Thrill...

A few days ago we made our third annual trip to the Dexter Blueberry Farm. It's one of our favorite summer activities; and, as always, we picked enough blueberries to feed a small country. My parents were visiting for the week so they came along to help with the picking. Last year, we picked about thirty pounds of berries and I made several batches of blueberry jam and blueberry butter. Since I still had a good supply of jam, we downsized to twenty-one pounds.

The farm provides big buckets and long ropes for picking. You can either tie your bucket around your waist like a belt or wear it as a super-blingy blueberry necklace. Since I was already wearing Annalise in the carrier, I opted for the blueberry belt. The picking was a little slower this trip than it has been in the past. Last year, we went later in August; and, you could literally pull off handfuls of berries. We still managed a pretty good haul with everyone picking. We lasted a little over an hour before Addie decided she had DEFINITELY had enough blueberry picking. She was, in no particular order, "tired, hungry, thirsty, hot, dirty, muddy, scared, bored and mosquito-bitten", or so she claimed.

We chilled out in the shade for a few minutes and then took our berries over for a weigh-in. At $1.60 a pound, the berries were well worth the effort. Aidan was VERY proud of his bucket of blueberries and insisted that it be placed in it's own bag and not mixed in with the rest of our crappy berries.

My mom made an awesome blueberry pie that evening that we enjoyed after a night of house-hunting. The next day, we made a few batches of blueberry muffins, some blueberry ice cream and a pitcher of sangria (recipe coming soon) with the berries. I froze six big ziplocs of berries to use later in muffins and smoothies. They freeze really nicely if you spread them out on lined cookie sheets to freeze individually before you dump them into the bag. We shared more with friends and are still working our way through two more giant bags. If you have any good blueberry recipes, please share them!