Buried in blueberries

For the last couple of weeks, I've been picking blueberries.

The first pick wasn't so bad, just a modest bowl-full. It took only a few minutes.

Well, that didn't last. Now the berries are ripening fast and I'm picking every other day (this photo is three days' worth of berries).

After I pick over the berries to remove any stems or blossom ends, I bag and freeze them.

The trouble is, it's been very hot here lately (102F yesterday), and I can't pick berries in full sun. Aside from the heat factor, for whatever reason I have a hard time telling ripe berries from nearly-ripe berries in full sunlight. That's why I prefer to pick in the shade. I can't pick early in the morning because by the time I finish milking Maggie, the sun is already on the blueberries. I've been picking late in the afternoon when a bit of shade falls on the berries from some nearby trees, but that only worked until the berries really ramped up production and the longer picking time started interfering with our evening chores.

So I rummaged around in the barn and found an old umbrella we used during our craft booth days. Propped up against the ridgepole over the berries, it's a compromise.

Here's the thing: The blueberry season has barely begun, and already I'm devoting 1.5 hrs every other day simply to picking. That's likely to increase even more, probably to two hours every other day. Last year, if you recall, we harvested just short of 60 lbs. of blueberries. I would not be surprised if we doubled that this year. (We've already let neighbors know we have berries for sale.)

So I have a lot of picking to do in the weeks ahead. Whenever I weary of the endless chore, I stop and give myself an attitude adjustment. How many people working cubicle jobs would do anything to spend a couple of hours in a blueberry patch? It helps change weariness into gratitude.

Honestly, I never expected the small bushes we planted four years ago to do this well ... and they're still not fully mature. How much more can these bushes produce? Time will tell.

Blueberry blossoms and bumblebees

Last year, if you recall, we harvested just short of 60 lbs. of blueberries.

This year, if the current crop of blossoms are anything to go by, the harvest may exceed last year's.

Some blossoms are clustered so thickly, they seem like they'll resemble grape clusters when ripe.

While I've seen some honeybees among the flowers, the primary pollinators are bumblebees. We have hundreds.

Picking won't commence until early July or so, and then the harvest will be spread over several weeks.

Last year, with so many berries, we ended up giving a lot of them away. I gave about 20 lbs. of frozen berries to our very nice UPS driver (whose wife also cans). Also I brought a bunch of canned blueberries to church and gave them away, the only stipulation being that people return the canning jars when they were finished.

I was speculating to Younger Daughter how many pounds of berries we might get this year, and she had a very good suggestion: Why not try making blueberry wine? Don gave me a winemaking kit a few years ago, just before we moved, and I haven't had a chance to use it yet.

I have a feeling I know where most of this year's blueberry crop might go.

Blueberries in the fall

Blueberries are amazing plants. Not only do they produce an abundant harvest...

...but they put on a show as well. The leaves turn brilliant scarlet.

It's like their last hurrah before they drop all their foliage and prepare for the next year.

It's a win-win no matter what season.

The blueberries are done

Ever since we planted the blueberry bushes here in our new home, they've been growing like mad.

Their production is increasing, too. The first year, I harvested one pound of berries – not surprising, since the bushes were just ramping up. Last year, they produced sixteen pounds.

This was on the order of what our bushes in our last home produced every summer, so to be honest I would have been perfectly satisfied with that.

But this year, the bushes produced and produced and produced. I picked and picked and picked. I filled gallon bags with fruit and popped them in the chest freezer, and I kinda lost count of how much I had. All I knew was it was a lot.

Finally I got tired of having to burrow past endless bags of blueberries in the freezer whenever I needed something, so I knew it was time to weigh the summer's bounty and get it canned up. I pulled all the bags out of the freezer and laid them on the table.

Can you see why these bags were dominating the freezer space?

One by one, I started weighing the bags, and tallying the results.

The total: 57.25 lbs!!!

Holy toledo, I did NOT expect the bushes to be this fruitful.

The trouble is, we don't need nearly sixty pounds of blueberries. I still have some canned up from last year. The solution, of course, was to give most of them away. I gave ten pounds of frozen berries to the UPS driver, a very sweet man, who said his wife canned and would be grateful for the fruit. (Later, I gave him another ten pounds.)

I planned to can up the rest and distribute a good portion to church members.

Canning gave me an excuse to use my lovely new water-bath canners I got for my birthday last year.

I canned everything using a "very light" syrup, the recipe of which can be found in this canning reference book.

While the syrup heated up...

...I washed fourteen quart jars, the maximum the two canners could handle.

The berries had been defrosting overnight. I cold-packed the defrosted fruit into quart jars.

Adding the syrup.

Wiping the rims (and checking for nicks).

Filling the canners with water. I used regular disposable lids for these berries instead of Tattlers, since I was giving away the majority of the canned blueberries and didn't want to lose any Tattler lids.

For raw packs in quarts at our elevation, I needed to process the jars for 25 minutes at a rolling boil.

I brought the water up to a rolling boil and began timing the berries. Suddenly I heard a bang. Sure enough, the bottom broke off one of the jars, resulting in a deluge of loose blueberries and a broken jar floating at the top of the pot.

I fished out the broken jar and let the rest of the jars process.

The culprit, I believe, is the racks that came with the pots didn't have enough clearance from the bottom. (During canning, jars should never be in direct contact with the pot's bottom.)

So I put a rack at the bottom. Duh, I should have done that first.

Typical canning chaos in the kitchen.

When all was said and done, I canned up 36 quarts of blueberries (including the one that broke), plus gave away another 20 lbs. of frozen berries to the UPS fellow.

Now 36 quarts of blueberries – on top of what I haven't yet used up from last year – is way more than we need, so we brought 24 of those quarts to church to hand out. (By the time I managed to snap a photo, several quarts had already been claimed.) The only request – augmented by a piece of tape on each quart – was to return the jars to me when the contents are finished. (What can I say, I'm territorial about my canning jars.) Needless to say, every last jar disappeared.

Interestingly, though, several older church members have offered me some of their surplus canning jars they no longer need, so it's turned into a win-win situation.

Incidentally, a reader asked, "How do you make pie filling from your canned blueberries?" To make a blueberry pie, I drain the berries, add sugar to taste, and about half a cup of flour, mix everything, and pour it into a pie crust. Sometimes I'll add a pat or two of butter over the top of the berries before putting the pie top on.

So that's our blueberry harvest for the year. With nearly sixty pounds harvested, that's about three-and-half times what we harvested the year before. I wonder what will happen next year?

The blueberry harvest is over

After weeks and weeks of picking blueberries, I can now say the harvest is officially over. This was my last picking:

Law of diminishing returns, y'know? It's no longer worth the effort.

Right now I have bags and bags of blueberries stored in  the freezer. The next step is to haul them all out and weigh them. One thing is certain: This year's harvest FAR outweighs last year's. The question is, by how much? Stand by.

Microscopic marvels

I have terrible vision. Anything beyond about six inches from my face is blurry. I've worn glasses since I was ten years old and am completely dependent upon them.

But this extreme near-sightedness has one amazing side benefit: I have extraordinary close-up vision. Seriously, it's practically microscopic. I call it my super power.

For this reason, I always remove my glasses any time I'm doing close-up work. This is a long-winded explanation of why I wasn't wearing my glasses the other day when sorting blueberries.

The blueberry harvest is in full swing, and I'm picking about a quart of fruit every other day. Before bagging and freezing it, I sort through to remove any stems, leaves, blossom remains, or other debris.

Like this:

Anyway, I was sitting there minding my own business, sorting the blueberries, when something caught my near-sighted eyes. Take a closer look at the berry at the farthest left:

It had a collection of tiny (empty) insect egg cases adhering to the skin of the fruit.

They were extraordinarily tiny and perfect.

I popped the egg cases off the blueberry easily with a fingernail. You can see the scars on the fruit itself.

Just one of those microscopic marvels I was blessed to see, all because I have lousy vision.