Blueberries R Us

 

One day, Little Patti went with her friends Bonnie and Lisa to Holland Farms to pick blueberries.
Little Patti and Bonnie brought along their small plastic pails and Lisa brought two plastic pails to put berries in. “We will take our berries to the bakery and freeze them,” said Bonnie.
“Then we will have food for the winter.”

With profound apologies to Robert McCloskey.

Its that time of year when the blueberries are ripe for the picking. We have the good fortune of having a local family open up their farm after the commercial harvest to the locals for a $2.00 a pound free for all. Bonnie, Lisa, and I pulled out our hats, sunscreen and coolers and spent  last Thursday on the ten acre farm harvesting the berries left behind by the pickers. This year yielded a bumper crop of berries. I was able to harvest about 40 lbs. Here is my favorite muffin recipe  Here's Bonnie making sure that we are harvesting the only the best.
We reconnoitered in the bakery later that night to spread our berries on ten large commercial baking sheets to flash freeze them in the walk in freezer. During the down time, we knit. I have started on another pair of socks. Surprise, surprise. The yarn, Panda Cotton, was a Christmas present from Bonnie and is aptly called Grapes and Blueberries. The pattern is a freebie online called Forget Me Not from Fiber Dreams blog. Its a little anklet with a lace pattern that knits up quickly.
Although I swore to my self to become a more monogamous knitter, I seem doomed to fail in this hopeless pursuit. I console myself by being true to my New Year's resolution and not purchase yarn, to knit from my stash instead. My only purchases this year were a new swift, ball winder, and OK. I caved in and bought a Vintage sock kit from the Tsock Tsarina. All the blather online about how great these socks are overwhelmed into the purchase. My overstock of yarn is slowly selling thanks to Ravelry. I go through the baskets every month and grit my teeth and add to the sales page. My baskets are still overflowing...I am happily rewinding yarn using my berry colander.
Here's to lots of summer knitting!

Comments

[Valerie]

Those blueberries look delicious. Since we're moving to a place that has a bigger kitchen I have been thinking about jellying and canning some fruits and vegetables for the winter. I remember my step-mom and dad doing that and they were always so yummy!

[Laura]

I'm glad you enjoyed my sock pattern! The blueberries look fabulous--good enough to eat. ;-) Love the idea of using the berry bowl to help corral the yarn ball while re-winding. Clever!

[Kristen]

How I love blueberries! It will be some months before we get to pick them up here.

[Kris]

Very nice blueberries. Where is Holland Farms? I looked in the phone book and did not see them.
Thanks!

[Kelly]

Wow- blueberries...there's nothing like them. Did you see that there's new reseach supporting evidence of improved long and short-term memory by eating blueberries? Good way to go about preserving brain matter if you ask me! Seehere

[Michele]

Wow! That's a ton of berries. Is the farm open to the public this year? I remember asking you about it last year and it wasn't. If there are still berries out there, I would love to check it out. I tried your recipe last year too (store bought berries)and it was delicious.

[rima]

Ooooh! I love blueberries.

[Beth]

Yum! That's a lot of berry picking you all did!

[Erika]

The berry colander is a stroke of absolute genius! Thanks for the wonderful idea! I hope you're managing to keep cool in the ridiculous heat we've been having. What happened to spring??

[deborah]

I love love love blueberries in season. They have a special bouquet that only exist when they are in season. I could swim in a bath of blueberries and eat them day and night.

[Nora]

The colander idea? Ingenious!

And now you've got me craving blueberry coloured sock wool...

[Linda Beyries]

Hi! yummm! Blueberries! We have wild blackberries that grow accross the street by the creek and a berrt farn nearby that I love to go to. You may have seen their products...Kowzinowski Farms? But the reason I'm writing I've started producing the newsletter for the Sonoma County Knitting Guild where I list all the "knit gatherings" in Sonoma County, which are a lot. But one I thought you might find interesting is at one of two LYS in the town of Sonoma called Bella Yarns where on Friday afternoons for 2-3 hours they have a knit-gathering for women who speak German.

I also teach knitting and crocheting to homeless women once a week, so all my yarn stash I'm not going to use goes to them, plus any other donations I can get. Enjoy your blueberries. Linda