Blueberry Picking

Everything’s bigger in Texas, or so they say. It’s June, so naturally we sunscreened up and drove out to the blueberry farm to fill our buckets. We took our northern friends who were only familiar with Alaskan groundberries (lowbush variety). They had never seen such enormous blueberries or bushes before. It’s a lot easier to fill a gallon bucket when you’re picking blueberries the size of grapes.

Highbush, or cultivated blueberries are the result of applying plant breeding techniques to wild swamp berries. They thrive in the acidic soil of the East Texas Piney Woods region.

Blueberries are indigenous to North America and only on this continent are they grown in quantity as a commercial crop.

Between 8 people (including two six year olds and a three year old), we picked 49lbs of blueberries. Some are muffin bound, some will be baked into a pie, plopped into a parfait or smoothie, or munched straight out of the bag with plenty left over to give away.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs beaten

1/4 lb butter

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add buttermilk, eggs and butter (melted and slightly browned). Mix well. Fold in blueberries. Fill well greased muffin tins half full and bake at 400 F for 20 minutes. Serve warm.