The Lowcountry Farm Wife Blog

In one of the nine freezers on our property, there is a mound of gallon Ziplocks filled with blueberries.  Blueberries that were picked just yards from the freezer where they now reside. 

For four weeks every summer, the bushes bear more plump blue balls than we can pick.  We invite friends to come and pick their fill of berries, and some do.  I pick about a gallon a day because there are other things in life that must be done.  I usually end up paying the girls a dollar or two to stand out in the sun and fill up a gallon themselves.  Their bargaining power has strengthened since one was attacked by a thousand marauding ants while picking berries.  I have to provide better footwear for my farm hands.  But I digress. 

Blueberries, as we all know, are deliciously healthy.  They are the stuff of good salads and even better muffins.

Aha, the muffins…

You see, with gallons of blueberries, one cannot possibly eat them all fresh.  And once put in the freezer, one cannot deliciously put them in salads.  I can make only so many cobblers and pies and…well…we like smoothies in season, but somehow, we seem to eat less than our share.

This year, one full gallon bag got dropped on the floor without the zipper tightly sealed…you never saw a cleanup like the clean up of a gallon of blueberries rolling into nooks, crannies, and cracks that you didn’t know existed.  We were on our hands and knees and still managed to get blueberries smashed on the bottoms of feet.

But even taking that particular bag out of the equation, we have a lot of blueberries.

And knowing how quickly the months fly by, and with a freezer full of blueberries that need to be eaten to make room for a new summer crop, I’ve been intent on finding the perfect blueberry recipe.

Sadly, my family doesn’t love blueberry muffins.  Or, for that matter, really any baked good involving blueberries.  To make matters worse, I do love them.  Which means that anytime I make a dozen blueberry muffins, I eat all but the two the girls eat under duress.

Even with all the health benefits of blueberries and freshly milled spelt flour, a steady stream of blueberry muffins can’t be good for the waistline.  And if I put the muffins in the freezer, I end up right back where I started—trying to stuff a bulging freezer full of food that needs to be eaten.

Wouldn’t it be grand, I thought, to have a signature Peaceful Way blueberry recipe?  Something we could make, give away, serve to guests, or…who knows…maybe even sell one day?  Wouldn’t it be grand to turn those gallons of blueberries into something worthy of their home grown, antioxidant, superfood goodness?

Isn’t that what a real farm wife would do?

Good news: the internet is full of blueberry recipes.  Especially blueberry muffin recipes.  Because normal people (i.e. – everyone but my family) like blueberry muffins. 

I have tried a great many of these recipes in my insanity convinced that, one day, I will pop a muffin out of the oven and my husband will say, “that’s the best muffin I ever had.  Please make those again.”  And the girls will cry tears of repentance saying, “Mom, we were wrong all these years.  Blueberries muffins are delicious!” 

What is actually happening is that my chickens are getting well fed. 

At least something likes my muffins.

A friend sent me a blueberry recipe last week that I tried with mild success.  Alas, the ingredients list included an entire cup of sugar and another one of butter.  Somehow, I felt that a cup of sugar disqualifies me from any sense of accomplishment in getting the girls to eat a blueberry, antioxidants notwithstanding.

Miraculously, I did pull one pan of “healthy” hot blueberry muffins out of the oven a few days ago that did all get eaten without my having to resort to gunpoint, knifepoint, or spanking spoons.  I have learned, however, that it is the second batch that is the true test…I have to ensure that the muffin consumption wasn’t just a fluke caused by the way the rotation of the earth coincided with the gravity of the earth and the pollen count on that particular day.

Meanwhile, as I was going through a list of allowable snacks this afternoon, one of the girls asked me with a gleam in her eye, “can we have frozen blueberries?”

I tried to think of a reason why not.

“I-I-I guess so.” 

All afternoon they ran around with baggies of frozen blueberries.  They had blue lips, purple teeth, and big smiles on their faces.

We may have just found the perfect recipe for all those blueberries.