Blueberry Picking 2014

Because we had gotten home a few days earlier than planned, I thought it might be a fun way to get our minds off of things for a little while and decided we needed to do our early blueberry picking. Every year we head to the Blueberry Ranch, an organic blueberry farm not too far from our house. Some years you can just walk to the picking bushes, but some years (like this one) you get to ride a wagon out to the bushes. We had a wonderful time, and picked about 11lbs. this year, that is actually fewer than normal because we still had blueberries in the freezer from last year.

This year I finally tried my hand at a blueberry pie. This one was super easy and I found the recipe here. I do have to admit though that I didn't make the crust from scratch. I have yet to find one that really works well for me, so this is a store bought crust, but from scratch filling. 

 The last 2 years now I have also made this Sour Cream Blueberry Ice Cream and Easy Blueberry jam. I love how they both turn out, and the entire family loves eating it!

We really love doing this! Just check out past years!!!

2013
2011
2009

Blueberry Picking

One of the things we really wanted to do this year was go blueberry picking. We went 2 years ago, and wanted to go last year but the car broke down right at blueberry season. This time Adam was able to come with. We also opted to go later in the day, around 5, and that worked so much better. The weather had cooled a bit, and we got to pick in the shade. Now normally we would pick tons of fruit, but we were moving the next week and wouldn't have the freezer space that we use to have.  So this time around we only picked about 5 1/2 lbs. We have been eating them like crazy! A few times in blueberry pancakes, but mostly straight up fresh blueberries. I wanted to make some muffins, but we will have to wait and see. There is always next year, right?

D dumping her bucket into the bigger one

Blueberry Picking

The kids and I went blueberry picking at a great local organic farm here in town with my mom's group. My mom was able to come along too! What a blast!!! My kids have never been big blueberry eaters, but give them the ability to pull them off the tree to eat, and watch out! D was just shoveling handfuls into her mouth the entire time we were there. One of the other kids gave L a bucket, then he was so into picking and putting them into his bucket. I froze tons of them, so we have fresh berries all year. But I have made a few things with them too. I made blueberry yogurt Popsicles, muffins, and pancakes. D LOVED the pancakes. The pictures will show just how much she did!