Blueberry Picking

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Published by shelbypaulk

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I’m a huge fan of picking fruit in the summer. I mean, why not? We live in Michigan and have access to do so. Our playgroup decided that we had so much fun picking strawberries that we’d try our hand at picking blueberries this time around. We drove to Fritz’s Blueberries (Brookside Farms) in Paw Paw, MI and their farm was big and beautiful. SO MANY trees–or are they bushes?–to pick from. I was so disappointed that I realized after we already got there that I had my camera but forgot to put the memory card in from the night before, so I couldn’t take any pictures. I felt naked without my camera, but thanks to Mandy we have some good ones!

Riley was so excited at the beginning, but if you know Riley you also know that she has a ZERO attention span. Picking the blueberries lasted a whole 5 minutes, she picked until the bottom of her bucket was covered, then it was on to playing in the dirt (really it was mud because it had rained the night before). She was taking her shoes off, throwing the sand in her hair and eating blueberries, all at the same time. I didn’t realize how many blueberries she had eaten until I went to combine our buckets in the end and noticed that she didn’t have one single blueberry in her bucket. She had eaten every one of them and then some…we got home and she kept saying she had a tummy ache (I wonder why).

I left Lincoln at home with my mom and am thankful that I did because Riley was enough of a handful without him being there too. I literally looked away for 5 seconds and she was at the complete end of the field wanting to play in their “sprinklers” (the HUGE things that spray out water to water the plants…what are those called??). She was a mess and her shoes, feet and legs were covered in dirt. (Good shoes too, she only has 1 pair of closed toe shoes that fit her now. She’ll be in a 9/10 this winter HOLY COW). Oh my, this girl gives me a run for my money. When is she going to slow down?? We got a whopping 5.5 lbs, all picked by yours truly. I was hoping for more like 15 lbs because I like to freeze them and make muffins, etc. So, I told Ty that we’ll have to do it again before the season is over!

Here’s my favorite Blueberry Muffin recipe: (makes 8 muffins)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners. 2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

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