Blueberries!

We love blueberries! Love them. And we are so blessed to have a farm near us where we can pick them by the gallons. We look forward to it every year. And Saturday we finally made it out there again.

Carson's First Trip to the Blueberry Farm

Besides the fun of having a family field trip, and eating ripe berries fresh from the bush, this helps provide our family with healthful, affordable snacks and breakfasts all year. The berries from this particular farm are pesticide-free and chemical-free. And by picking in bulk and freezing them, I insure that the berries I use in our baked goods were fresh and perfect the day they entered the freezer.

Saturday we arrived at the farm, geared-up with our buckets and picked for only about 30-45 minutes before the little guy was tired of being in the stroller. (And we were all hot and sweaty!) But by then Jeffrey, Maggie and I had picked a gallon of berries between the three of us. (Lilly ate all of hers.) We ate a lot of the fresh berries, and gave some away. I made whole wheat blueberry pancakes yesterday. And the rest were ready to be put in the freezer.

So while the kids slept today, I went through the bag of berries, inspecting them by the handful, and measured them out by cup into quart-size zipper bags.

I filtered out all the over-ripe or shriveled ones, as well as any debris in amongst the berries. And I was occasionally tempted by big, plump, perfect ones...

... which I ate immediately. I didn't want the other berries in the bag to feel inferior with the perfect berries.

I packaged them by cup so that I can quickly pull out berries already measured for recipes needing a cup of berries. I put 13 cups in the freezer today. And we're hoping to make one more trip to the farm before blueberry season is over to get another gallon of berries. And if I save 13 more cups to freeze, that will give me enough berries to make a double batch of whole wheat blueberry muffins, or a double batch of blueberry pancakes... each month... for an entire year! (Until blueberry season opens again.) Plus I'll have a few cups of frozen berries to use in smoothies or yogurt or just by themselves - which is a delicious summer treat.

We're so thankful for fresh blueberries... what are you thankful for?