Sunday, August 05, 2007

Feeling Blue

My obsession of this past week: Blueberries.

On Monday, I went with my mom and sister, and I picked about 15-1/2 pounds of blueberries. I froze most of what I picked, but kept some out for muffins, pie, coffee cake and munching. When I finally got around to baking later in the week, I discovered that either I didn't save enough out of the freezer or we had been munching more than I planned on (probably the latter). After measuring out enough for a coffeecake, I had only a handful of blueberries left.

So on Thursday night, I went blueberry picking again - this time by myself. It was a new experience for me - picking on my own and going to a place I had never picked at before. At first I wasn't so sure I liked the "rules" of the place I went: start at this bush, pick all the way around the bush, then move to the next bush in line. Once I got a few bushes in, I decided the "rules" weren't too bad - especially since I usually fall prey to "the berries look bigger on that bush over there - but they really aren't once you get there" syndrome (similar to "the grass is always greener..."), and end up wasting most of my picking time looking for the biggest berries. After only an hour of picking, I came home with about 9-1/2 pounds of blueberries - that's a lot for me!

On Friday and Saturday I baked blueberry coffee cake, blueberry muffins and a crust for blueberry cream pie. All of it was very yummy, but after eating so many blueberries this week I feel like this:

I think the obsession if almost done - I'm almost happy that the blueberries are just about gone!


But give me a couple of weeks - I think I'll be ready to raid the freezer!

3 comments:

Janna said...

I totally and completely understand. I picked 10 pounds of sweet cherries when I only meant to pick enough to eat for a week or so...not a month or two. That was more eating than we intended to do, I just couldn't stop! Now you need to start freezing all the blueberry stuff you just baked! I have also been to the "pick every berry all the way around the bush" place...and was a little peeved that they even wanted me to pick the SMALL ones! Who does that? :)

Anonymous said...

Olivia,
I too have been going a little blueberry crazy. I don't think I have picked quite as many as you but I have been having fun. I have baked blueberry bread, blueberry muffins, and today I made a blueberry pie. I also got all the berries ready for freezing today and stuck them in the freezer. There is part of me that wants to go and get more. I know there aren't very many places picking anymore, but there is always the farmers market. They are a little more expensive at the market than picking but I guess I am saving time.
How do you freeze your berries? Do you wash them first? Just curious.
See you soon!
Jen

Anonymous said...

Hi, Olivia - It's been a while since I've checked your blog. Looks like you've had a great summer with lots of activities and celebrations. Loved seeing the updates!