Blueberries!

Blueberries at Bush Neck Farms

My stepson and his wife are quite the cooks. One of her specialties is all sorts of interesting jams. The family loves to go berry picking for blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and more. My husband doesn't have that same joie de vivre about the berry-picking experience, but because his son had just corresponded with us about their latest adventures with cherries, I decided to coax him along on a trip to Bush Neck Farms in James City County yesterday (about 10 miles west of Williamsburg on the Chickahominy River). We picked nearly 10 pounds and visited a farm stand to boot! Even though there were a few unripe berries, twigs, and leaves in the batch (I blame him, he blames me . . . ), I was glad to have him along because I wouldn't have picked as many without him.

I was anxious for the blueberries to come in because I wanted to give Helen and Scott Nearing's fruit juice recipe a try. (Regular readers will remember that I recently finished their book and wrote about it in this blog at the end of May. That was just after the local strawberries were done for the season but before blueberries were ripe.) The Nearings raised most of their food and the book included several of her simple recipes. One was for juice and because we are big on 100% fruit juice, the recipe below sounded good. Here's their description of the process:

Juice a la Nearing

"The glass jars were sterilized on the stove. A kettle or two of boiling water was at hand. We poured an inch of water into a jar on which the rubber had already been put, stirred in a cup of sugar until it had dissolved (we used brown or maple sugar, or hot maple syrup), poured in a cup and a half of fruit, filled the jar to brimming with boiling water, screwed on the cap and that was all. No boiling and no processing. The raspberries, for example, retained their rich, red color. When the jars were opened their flavor and fragrance were like the raw fruit in season. The grape juice made thus was as delicious and tasty as that produced by the time-honored, laborious method of cooking, hanging in a jelly bag, draining, and boiling the juice before bottling. Our only losses in keeping these juices came from imperfect jars, caps, or rubber. We found that two people could put up fifteen quart jars in twenty minutes."

Cooking blueberries with honey
and lemon

In addition, I made a blueberry cobbler and took it to my parents today. You'll find the recipe via this link to allrecipes.com. We had some warm with ice cream and it was delicious! Finally, I made blueberry honey jam. My daughter-in-law gave us some that she made last year and it was perfect. My husband likes his all-fruit jam not too sweet. I found this recipe and just finished making 8 cups of it.


Best ever blueberry honey jam
(makes about 8 cups of jam)

4 lbs. (roughly 11 cups) fresh blueberries
2 1/2 cups honey
1 Tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1. Wash and pick through blueberries.

2. Mix berries with honey, let sit 2 hours.

3. Put honey-berry mixture and lemon juice in pot. Boil on medium heat for 30 minutes, scraping sides of pot and stirring bottom as you go. Once the jam "sheets" it is done.

4. Sterilize 8 cups worth of canning jars, lids, and rings. (Boil for 10 minutes.)

5. Ladle jam into jars, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space. Put the top and ring on the jars and close, tight but not too tight.

6. Place closed jars in pot of boiling water until covered and boil for 10 minutes.

7. When done, place on counter, each jar should make an airtight seal.

We have another 8 cups of fresh berries left, I estimate. My husband will make blueberry muffins in the morning and the rest will last us a week as we eat them with yogurt or cereal or just a handle full at a time!