Pick Your Own: Blueberries

Tree Berry Farm on Rt. 123 in Scituate

We love blueberries in our house!  The taste of summer just bursts right from the berries the minute you bite into one.  In Scituate we are so lucky to have Tree Berry Farm.  It is just minutes from our house and there are rows upon rows of blueberries to pick.

Tree Berry Farm opens bright and early at 7am, so essentially you can pick blueberries and still be home in time to put them on your breakfast cereal.  This morning we got there shortly after it opened (a bonus of my husband working from home is we can do these things when Luke would be commuting).  Conor, our one year old, absolutely loves blueberries.  They are his favorite fruit and he could eat them by the pound.  This was Conor’s first time going picking and he loved it.  I wish you could see the look on his face when he got closer to bushes and realized that the berries were growing on them.

The fantastic thing about picking your own berries is that they are low enough for toddlers and smaller children to pick than apples and you can pick as many as you like at the farm.  Upon arrival they give you coffee canisters which have been threaded with rope so you can put the canisters around your neck while you are picking.

Beautiful, bright blue berries were on so many bushes.  It was hard to decide where to start.  We picked and picked and picked.  John, our five year old, was pretty discerning, picking only the most perfect berries; while Conor was more cavalier taking handfuls despite there being some unripe berries along with leafs and stems.  The other amazing thing about picking your own is the price.  At the farm, they only charge $3 a pound and when you pick your own they are so fresh.  If you need another reason, it is so much fun!

When we got back to the house we enjoyed fresh fruit salad complete with the blueberries we picked this morning.  Tonight we are making Texas Style Blueberry Cobbler from Cook’s Country’s September Issue.  The photograph of the crispy brown edged cobbler with lemon zest and mashed blueberries is already making my mouth water.  I’m also planning on making Jordan Marsh’s famous blueberry muffins.  I’m told by a good friend you can make the muffin mix and refrigerate it the night before, so when you get up in the morning you can pop the muffins in the oven and they should be ready when your coffee is.

Whether you enjoy them fresh from the bush or baked in scrumptious muffins or desserts; blueberries are symbolic of summer in New England.  Happy Summer!

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins Recipe from Cooks.com:

Preheat oven to 375°F.In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy; add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
In a second bowl, combine all dry ingredients. (You can use an electric mixer to combine the dry ingredients thoroughly at this point so that you won’t need to overmix once the wet and dry ingredients are combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar mixture along with the milk and vanilla.
Optionally, mash 1/2 cup of the blueberries, and stir in by hand (this will turn batter a light shade of blue and add a touch of blueberry flavor, but this step may be skipped, if you wish). Add the remaining whole berries and stir in gently by hand.
Spray a 12 muffin baking pan with Baker’s Joy (or other non-stick spray). Fill greased muffin cups.
Sprinkle sugar on top of unbaked muffins (we like to use Turbinado sugar for sprinkling the tops).
Bake at 375°F for 25-30 minutes. Cool in pan. Run a knife around the edge of each muffin after several minutes to free it from the pan and cool on wire racks. Muffins may be brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with sugar, if desired.