beautiful bountiful blueberries!

Next to perfectly ripe, fresh figs, blueberries are my favorite food. And, I have to admit, blueberries in large quantities are even better. I know, I know: “be present with each bite, eat consciously, chew fully and you won’t need as much” (as I would say). But for me, blueberries are great, and more blueberries are even greater!

Needless to say, being able to pick my breakfast from a blueberry bush is my idea of heaven!

My favorite breakfast spot!

My dear friend Julie and I went blueberry picking at Tougas Farms in Northboro, MA.

This was only half of what we picked!

We went without our kids because we were on a serious blueberry mission. We picked for three hours with the intention of picking so much that we would be able to freeze them for the winter. We picked 25 lbs each!

50 lbs of freshly picked blueberries! plus some perfect peaches and raspberries

Several days later, however, I’ve realized that I will have to go picking again! I have eaten so many blueberries this week that I was only able to freeze 3 gallon-bags-full for the winter.

Having local, tasty, frozen fruit ready for my smoothies, pancakes, muffins and pies makes preparing food for myself and my family easy and delicious. I love bringing a touch of summer to the chill of winter!

There are a couple of tricks to freezing blueberries:

1. Don’t wash them first. If you wash them, it will add too much moisture, you will get blueberry mush.
2. Lay them out on a cookie sheet on top of parchment paper and then freeze them. Once they are frozen, put them in a freezer bag for long-term freezing. If you don’t lay them out first, they will freeze in a big clump, which is a pain when it comes to pouring out a bit for pancakes or smoothies.

blueberries ready for freezing

We picked two varieties of blueberries. The ones you see above are great for baking because they are less plump, have less moisture and are a bit smaller. We also picked really lovely fat ones that are just wonderful for nibbling, which I did a lot of.

This week I put blueberries in everything, including my salads!

mixed greens, sprouts, jicama, scarlet turnips, carrots and of course blueberries!

But really, my preferred way to eat a blueberry is plain.

My favorite!

I’ll be heading back for more picking this weekend…this time with the kids. In addition to Tougas Farms, you can also pick at Indian Head Farm, another family farm in the area. I would love to hear about your favorite picking spots.

If you want to know how I make other summer fruits last through the winter, click here.

For a lovely blueberry cake check this out.

Here’s where you’ll find a  healthy blueberry cacao fudge

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nina Manolson, MA, CHC, LMT is the Smokin’ Hot Mom Mentor and Family Wellness Expert. She’s the founder of SmokinHotMom.com and HealthyYummyKids.com. She helps busy moms look and feel their best, and helps them feed their kids well in a world that doesn’t. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her healthy recipes and wellness tips click here.

2 Responses

1. Healthy Vanilla Bean Cake – Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Sugar-free, Grain-Free « Nina Mmm's Blog says:

   June 11, 2011 at 10:15 pm

   [...] tasty, and a good excuse to have cake on a non-birthday. Then I dumped frozen blueberries (which I picked last summer) and raspberries on top of the batter. But, my husband missed the nutty coffee cake topping [...]

   Reply
2. Pomegranate Coconut Parfait | Smokin Hot Mom says:

   January 4, 2012 at 7:12 pm

   [...] I made Vanilla Bean Cake 14 times!), sometimes they are just foods I’ll always love (like blueberries), and other times it’s foods that are in season and available for a little while (like [...]

   Reply