The Summer of the Blueberry

This past July my sister and I (my brother-in-law came this time too) renewed a delighted pasttime and headed to Michigan to visit our aunt and uncle. WE used to do this on a more regular basis but of course, as we've grown up we've not been back as much as we'd like to. Of course, July is the BEST month to go, because the blueberries are ripe for the pick'. And did we pick.

We got to Michigan on Thursday evening and were there for a long weekend. On Friday morning, we decided to go pick blueberries. When we got there, we decided it would be a good idea to get three 1-gallon buckets to tie around our waists (very stylist and VERY practical) along with a larger bucket to maximize our blueberry collecting. Even though we had just experienced incredibly hot July temperatures, that morning was overcast and breezy and it was just lovely blueberry picking weather. We get started. We fill our little buckets once. We dump our little buckets into the big bucket. We fill our little buckets again. We dump our little buckets back into our big buckets. We start to fill our little buckets a third time. Then the gentle overcast sky turns to threatening rain clouds. Other guests leave the blueberry bushes. We keep picking. Aubrei says "maybe the rain will pass right over us." Then I say "you hear that roar? That's probably the rain coming over those trees." Then it started pouring. We grabbed our big bucket (okay, we made Dan grab it), we covered our little buckets with our shirts to avoid the rain and we headed for the garage. We realized quickly that the garage was too far away, so we ducked under some trees. The canopy held the rain water off. For about 45 seconds. Then we were soaked and had no choice but to run back to the garage, giggling the whole way and determined not to lose a signal berry from our harvest. Back at the garage, along with the other guests who had come in BEFORE the rain, we stood in line to get our berries weighed, pay, and go home.

We came home with 33 POUNDS of blueberries, which translated to about 16lbs a piece for the Teters and Crowes:

So far I have only made the Blueberry Boy Bait Cake, glazed blueberry breakfast rolls, and LOTS of blueberry smoothies, but I have plans to make muffins to freeze, pancakes to freeze, more smoothies, another boy bait cake, and whatever other blueberry recipes I come across. Suggestions wanted!