Blueberry Picking Project

Earlier this week, I was dead set on picking strawberries.

I can't even remember the last time I had a fresh strawberry, until my friend Shannon brought some strawberries to a Tuesday garden party at the farm. Even though the strawberry season is so short here, they still put the large, hollow and flavorless strawberries to shame that you find in the stores. Those strawberries are 'improved' to handle the many miles to the Midwest and that means, flavor is usually sacrificed.

I was thinking about strawberry spinach salads, jams, strawberry shortcake type of desserts, and for snitching as a little snack.

Well.... that plan was sidetracked when I found out that the season had progressed the strawberries 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule. The disappointment was short lived because it was blueberry season at the Berry Patch in a surrounding town!

My friend Elizabeth and I were picking blueberries at the Berry Patch in Nevada

I honestly never thought that blueberries would do so well in Iowa. I had never picked blueberries but remember the few times that I would snitch them on a hot summer day. They were one of my dad's and my favorites but rarely did we have them in the house.

It was blazing hot and I probably ate three to each one that I picked... no, not really but it sure seemed like it! After a couple of hours, Elizabeth and I each picked about 3 lbs of blueberries. Then we moved onto the red raspberries but we were ahead of schedule on those. They would all be ripening in the next week or so, so we were late on the strawberries and too early on raspberries.

The blueberries were definitely worth it and that made the strawberries turn into a distant memory. For garden party, I made a fresh lettuce salad (from the garden) with blueberries, glazed walnuts, and a poppy seed dressing.  Also in the works this week are blueberry muffins, a strudel, and other recipes that I have been wanting to make but haven't had the chance. 

We also came upon this bird nest in one of the blueberry bushes.

As for me, I will have to catch up in the garden and pick my mountains of green beans in addition to other veggies that will be available. It seems like I have been waiting forever to start cooking and now, I'm ready!