Kuplink! Kuplank! Kuplunk!
In the middle of book edits and after working outside all morning on our own farm, I decided it was a good idea to go blueberry picking down the road at Glory Farm at noon on an August Saturday.
And ya know what? It was.
It was hot and sticky but also meditative as I walked slowly up and down the rows with only the sounds of crickets and birds rustling in the leaves.
After staring at my screen so much last week mixed with the strenuous work that absolutely had to be done on our own farm, this was a chance to stop working and focus only on selecting each tiny berry and dropping it in the basket.
Kuplink! Kuplank! Kuplunk! Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey is a forever favorite picture book around here, and I always think of it when it's time to go blueberry picking, though I’ve yet to run into a bear.
If you’ve ever picked blueberries, you know that a gallon doesn’t sound like that much, but when you actually go to use it, it is! Here’s what I did with our fresh blueberries:
💙I immediately froze half of them for future goodness to be determined. I rinsed them in a colander and picked out any leaves and stems and put them on a cookie sheet with space between the berries in the freezer. After they were frozen, I stored them in a ziplock in the freezer. If you don’t do this, the blueberries will be stuck together in one giant wad after they freeze. Not that I’ve learned that the hard way before or anything.
💙This past Sunday, we added blueberries to our favorite Pamela’s gluten-free pancake and baking mix and ate giant stacks of fluffy blueberry pancakes with butter and maple syrup.
💙I ate some blueberries mixed with almond butter and flax seed as a healthy, hearty snack.
💙And finally, I’ve already made several rounds of Shauna Niequist's blueberry crisp from her book, Bread and Wine. It's perfect for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never lasts long. Eat it by the spoonful, or mix it with creamy full-fat cottage cheese. So. Good.
Blueberry crisp from Bread and Wine book surrounded by the gifts of my garden in summer
What I haven’t done yet is make gluten-free blueberry donuts, but I’m salivating just thinking about them and the memory of This Perfect Picnic we had one morning in Dallas with some of our dearest friends. I’m not sure what recipe Linda used that day, but this one is probably similar.
In other random news, I wore my new Tevas blueberry picking, and I’m in LOVE with them, so let’s talk about that for a second. Where have these been all my life? I’ve worn Keens for years since we moved here to Tennessee in 2015 and started trekking to all the local waterfalls. But recently the treads have gotten too smooth, and I’ve been slipping in the creek. Also, I didn’t love the style - I only wore them when I was hiking. So I found these lovely Teva Hurricanes - they’re the model that has great tread and thicker soles. I chose the purple mountains, because hello, purple and mountains. What shoe could be a better choice for moi?
Now I wear them any time I need a little more stability in summer, like around the farm or on hikes or to the creek. So comfy right out of the box.
