Yesterday I went blueberry picking with some friends. It was a fun morning that is resulting in a lot more work. I was relatively cautious in my picking and I only have 9 1/2 pounds to process. One of my friends picked 26 pounds and the other 20 pounds. This wouldn’t be a problem if I had either cleaned out my freezer beforehand or had gotten rid of the downstairs fridge and replaced it with an extra freezer. But, having done neither, I have my work cut out for me.
As one might expect from me, I am filled with ideas for using up my current blueberry overload. We have been doing fairly well on the “just eating them” part of the show. But, there are only two of us and we can only eat so much before we start turning into Violet Beauregarde. I fully intend to freeze several pounds of them. Especially once I walk over to a friends house to borrow his food sealer, which will help stave off freezer burn on the berries.
And that still leaves me with a few pounds for processing. I have been bouncing ideas around my head for a while now and they span the pragmatic to the ridiculous. The pragmatic options include canning some blueberries for putting over yogurt in the winter. The most ridiculous idea so far is using the berries to create some outlandish piece of performance art.
What I would really like to do this summer is can a whole lot of peaches. I love peach yogurt, but find most of the commercial varieties either too sweet or to artificial tasting. But, if I were to can a whole bunch of peaches in a low-sugar syrup, I could make tasty peach yogurt year-round. When I’m not eating blueberry yogurt, of course.I also have a few pints of the last of this year’s strawberries to finish eating. The strawberries got neglected when I brought the blueberries home, and now they are nearing the end of their peak. I am thinking of making some strawberry cobbler this afternoon. Of course, that means we may get distracted from our blueberry eating, which only leaves me with more to process.
This is all happening when I (gratefully) have a fairly decently sized workload. At least we are between heat waves, so my brain remains functional at the end of the day. But, I once again find myself daydreaming about having Samantha Stephen’s powers. I actually enjoy both the picking and processing of summer fruits. But from time to time, it would be nice to be able to twitch my nose and have all of my work completed in a matter of seconds.