Blueberry season

[kimbob]

Made some Canterbury Farm Blueberry Muffins. Got the recipe from a family circle magazine I don't know how many years ago (the paper is brown!). The recipe is online, too, so if you're interested google it. My husband has been requesting these muffins for 2 weeks and I finally had the time this morning.
Anyone baking with blueberries?

Spread the word

      

  

  

[Mike Nolan]

I don't know if there's anyone growing blueberries locally here, I don't think I've ever see them at a farmer's market.

Frozen blueberries and fresh blueberries from the store (grown who knows where!) are enough different that there are things I just wouldn't try with frozen ones. Pancakes and muffins both seem to work with either type, though.

[BakerAunt]

Kimbob--My husband, older stepson, and I went blueberry picking last week. I froze ten (4 cup) bags. I baked a blueberry crumb-topped pie last week. This morning, I baked blueberry cinnamon rolls from dough I made and shaped last night. Blueberry muffins or bread is on the agenda. We plan to go back and pick more berries, so that my husband has plenty for his oatmeal, I can use some on my oatmeal occasionally, and I can bake with them. The frozen ones work well in muffins and in my pie recipe. The sweet rolls I made must have fresh blueberries.

[kimbob]

I used to do that, as well. Haven't been blueberry picking for several years because I don't have the time. I miss having bags and bags of frozen blueberries. I buy them at the farm stand and freeze some.

[aaronatthedoublef]

When we lived in So Cal we quickly learned to shop the farmers' market for produce. Everything in the grocery stores was shipped to Texas, packed there and sent back to California. If it did not ripen off the plant it would never be ripe and if it did it was usually bruised.

Plus the farmers said they saved the best for the markets where they saw us face-to-face.

[Mike Nolan]

I was looking at an assortment of sweet peppers at the farmer's market two weeks ago, most of them were mis-shapen, oddly colored and, frankly, looked far worse than what I can buy at the grocery store for about half the price.

[BakerAunt]

Some farmers markets--and venders--are better than others. Our small local farmers market does not have particularly good prices on many items. The quality, however, is usually excellent. I paid $7 for a quart of mixed cherry tomatoes, and that might be about what the grocery store has, but the flavor is superior. The organic potatoes I buy are also more expensive, but there is a notably much better texture and flavor. The strawberries I bought earlier this year, at $6 per quart, were somewhat more expensive, but since there were more small berries, I think that I actually paid about the same amount as in-store. The strawberries I have bought there the last few seasons has led me to swear off of ever buying what the stores sell.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The farmers' market we went to in Thousand Oaks was HUGE. It took up large part of the mall parking lot. We bought flats of the most beautiful strawberries for $5. And the avacados were wonderful and $0.50 (but that may have been because Kate had a crush on the farmer).

[BakerAunt]

My husband and I went back to the blueberry farm today and picked 15-16 pounds. I washed most of the berries and am air drying them on paper towel-lined sheet pans. Tomorrow, I will divide them into 4-cup bags and freeze. That should hold us for the year. I set aside the rest for upcoming baking projects.

[Author]

Posts