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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
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23 pounds of blueberries!

I went berry picking again.  I think this was my fifth time this summer, and I'm not slowing down yet!  I still want to pick some blackberries at this natural area outside of my friend's town, and I want to find a place to pick peaches while they're ripe so I can slice and freeze them and use them for smoothies later!
Yesterday I went blueberry picking with my fiancé and his siblings.  Together, we picked 23 pounds of blueberries!  In less than an hour and a half.  They were 0.99 cents/lb--I called around the local farms to find a good price, and these are no-spray.  It is so fast and easy to pick blueberries compared to other berries, and it is so much cleaner and less painful!  No thorns, no mushy berries that get all over your hands, easy to cup your hand under a cluster and pull them off with your thumb.  And you don't have to bend over much unless you want to get the low-hanging berries.
Here's the lovely "Blueberry Valley" at the farm we went to.
We got there in the morning, so for the first hour or so we were in rows shaded by the big trees and it was almost chilly!
Here are the berry-pickers (we have nearly matching cars):
So I thought I'd do a little how-to on freezing blueberries, which is pretty much the same as freezing raspberries but easier!  Since you may be wondering what I did with all my 23 pounds of blueberries...

  1. Dump blueberries out onto a cookie sheet.  Sort out the little leaves, stems, wrinkled berries, etc.
  2. Freeze on cookie sheets for a long time--they freeze unevenly, so even after overnight some of mine aren't totally frozen.  But, get most of them frozen.
  3. Dump into containers or freezer bags and store for months!  Fresh smoothie ingredients into the winter months.
I love summer!
Hope you are having a good weekend--have you done any great summery activities in this August heat?

11 comments

  1. We pick wild blueberries here in the U.P. and I never bother to 'prefreeze' them before dumping them in plastic bags. They never stick together, it works great!

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  2. Mmmm - berries! I just made a peach/blackberry cobbler today from farmers' market produce (almost as good as picking it yourself!). Plan to update the blog with the how-to tomorrow if you want to check it out! :)

    Liza
    http://www.amusingfoodie.com

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  3. OH wow! Those look so stinkin good! We love to go berry picking but missed blueberries at our local farm. So jealous!

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  4. Anonymous8/15/2010

    We always pick wild blueberries when we are out 4-wheeling up here in AK. They are quite a bit different then your typical blueberry. Mine never make it to the freezer. Usually they go straight into Jelly:~)

    http://tarainwonderland.typepad.com/tara-in-wonderland/2010/07/how-to-make-blueberry-jelly.html

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  5. What farm did you go to? I went to Kruger Farms a couple weeks ago and they were all picked over all ready.

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  6. Yummy stuff!
    Portlanders, I went to Rowell Brothers Farms south of Hillsboro. They have PLENTY! Several fields of lovely berries. 503 628 0431 if you want to call to check prices (should still be 99 cents/lb probably). Their address is 24000 SW Scholls Ferry Rd. It's super close from SW Portland, too.

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  7. Great, thank you! I'll have to give them a call.

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  8. Yum! We keep saying we're going to go strawberry picking, but we always miss it by at least a week...thanks for the how-to!

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  10. Is that really *all* you have in your freezer?
    Or do you perhaps have a dedicated blueberry-only unit? :)

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  11. Haha, yeah pretty much. We have some things in the shelves in the door, too! I use up all the frozen bananas I freeze pretty fast. ;)

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