The proprietors suggested I borrow one of their small buckets to supplement my big bucket as the young blueberry plants are pretty low to the ground, and once I got out into the field I looked like a genius.  While everyone else was bending awkwardly or kneeling, I sat on the rim of my large bucket and filled the small bucket.  When the small bucket was full, the contents went into the big bucket and I started to fill the small bucket again.  The berries were so ripe they were practically falling off the plants into my bucket.  In about an hour I had filled my five gallon bucket about a third full with barely any effort at all, and these are easily some of the best blueberries I have ever tried.

My friend and I went berry picking at Peachy Pig Farm a couple of weeks ago, and brought back a bounty of raspberries, marionberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries.  Their blueberries were tasty, but not as plump or plentiful.  The berry mix made an amazing no bake tart, though. It took about an hour to make, and turns out so pretty it looks like I spent a lot more time on it. Since I do a lot of my cooking and baking on the fly, I am not listing any exact measurements of ingredients.

No Bake Berry Tart

Ingredients:
Lots of berries!
A cup or so of Granola and Flake cereal (I used Peace Raspberry Ginger)
About half a stick of melted butter
Handful of toasted hazelnuts
Cinnamon
Sugar
Lemon zest
Softened cream cheese
Sour cream

Directions:
Use a blender or food processor to turn toasted hazelnuts and cereal to a course meal consistency.  Mix in cinnamon and butter, then press into the bottom of a springform pan. Put the pan in the freezer to set while you do the next step.  With a handmixer, gradually blend sour cream and sugar with cream cheese until the consistency is just thin enough to be easy to spread, but still pretty thick.  I add the sour cream a spoonful at a time until the consistency seems right.  Once this is well blended, mix in the lemon zest.  Spread this mixture on top of the crust in the springform pan, and return to the freezer.  Wash and prep the berries.  (Remove stems from strawberries, etc.) Once the cream cheese mixture has set in the pan, top it with the berries.  Garnish with mint leaves if desired then refrigerate until it is time to serve.  Enjoy!

Okay, back to Saturday’s bucket of berries. I love dried blueberries and I actually had enough to make it worth prepping a batch for dehydration. I tried it last summer after blanching them, and after 24 hours the berries weren’t really drying, so I gave up and added them to our cereal for the next two days.  The catch with dehydrating is that it takes a lot, and usually after dehydrating a food it doesn’t last any longer than if I hadn’t preserved it because it tastes so good!  With the water removed from fruit, it really concentrates the sugar. This year I did not blanch them, but just sliced them in half and put them in the dehydrator.  They are drying a lot quicker this time, but I put them in around noon yesterday and I am going to take them out before I go to bed tonight.

Snacking, making blueberry pancakes, and experimenting with a savory melon salad accounted for a couple of pounds of berries, and the eight trays in my dehydrator took about five pounds. Three pounds left!  Now what?  After flirting with the idea of blueberry syrup, jam, or cobbler, I found a recipe for blueberry basil vinegar in my canning and preserving book. This is something we would use and share with friends!  Plus, it helped me keep my basil plants under control – they have been growing like mad this season!  It will take a month before it is ready for bottling, but I think it will be really good in salads.

Speaking of salads, I came back from a trip to Spicer Brothers Produce with, among other things, a tasty orange honeydew melon. One of the employees was walking around the store with samples, and I couldn’t resist. Since it was really ripe, we needed to eat it pretty quickly.  All 5+ pounds of it! Sunday brunch barely put a dent in it, so I decided to experiment with a savory melon salad.  All measurements are approximate!

Melon Bacon Blueberry Basil Salad

Salad Ingredients:
Orange honeydew melon (or other favorite melon)
Handful of blueberries
Small handful of basil, chopped (From my garden!)
Several slices of crispy cooked bacon, chopped (for the love all things sacred, fake bacon should not be used)

Dressing Ingredients:
Several tablespoons of honey
1 stalk of green onions or scallions, finely chopped (Again, from my garden!)
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of olive oil
Tablespoon of sweet and spicy mustard
Teaspoon of bacon grease
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:
Use a melon baller to fill a bowl with melon. Add bacon, basil, and blueberries then toss lightly.  Set aside in refrigerator. In a cruet, shake together dressing ingredients. An alternate way to prepare the dressing would be in a bowl with a whisk.  Add dressing to each individual bowl just before serving.  Enjoy!

I am really pleased with how this turned out. The contrast between the ingredients was quite exquisite. If I made it again, I probably wouldn’t include the blueberries because they really weren’t needed.  The melon and bacon were the primary flavors.

Visited Jossy Farms and Sara’s Blueberries this weekend with the girls. Four women in a Subaru Outback with a ton of boxes and containers! Distracted on the way out to North Plains by a number of yard and estate sales, and had to stop and pick up more cash for fruit because we had blown all of our cash on garage sales.  Picked up fun fixings for the costumes I am crafting for Aaron and I to wear to the Portland Pirate Festival next month. Finally made it out to the farm.

At Jossy Farms, you get a little wagon and pull it through the orchard while you pick out your peaches, pears, or apples. This is a steal at eighty cents a pound, and it is so much fun to wander the rows. There is nothing like peaches right off the tree! My pears are sitting a few more days to finish ripening, but the peaches I picked were so perfectly ripe that they bruised a bit on the way home.

One of the gals also had her heart set on blueberries, even though it is the end of the season, and the folks at the farm gave us directions to Sara’s Blueberries. It is hidden behind a neighborhood of relatively new tract homes, and you would never know it was there unless you knew where you were going.  They have about an acre of blueberry bushes, and a pen of goats.  At $1.50/lb, again a steal!  I picked close to two pounds.

Once I got home, I started prepping to dehydrate the whole lot.  Here are the lessons I learned this weekend:

• More than blanching is needed for blueberries.  I tried drying them blanching only, and finally gave up after around 36 hours at 125 degrees.  Think I will try slicing them next time.  Read something about a water and vinegar rinse, too.
• Uniform slices for peaches (preferably thin) are best
• If the skin isn’t coming off the peach after it has been blanched, it is not ripe enough.
• Must remember to lightly oil the dehydrator trays before arranging the fruit.  Might also pick up some additional mesh liners, too.

While this batch of both fruits is delicious, it is not shelf stable, so I’ve given Aaron the directive that the fruit must be eaten within the next couple of days.  I had barely gotten the words “must be eaten” out of my mouth when he made a beeline for the kitchen to make Scottish oatmeal, which is an excellent base for dried fruit.