Summer of 2020. Not like any other...and it appears the Maine wild blueberries...at least in my part of the state...are also not a fan of 2020. Last year I had to recruit my husband to pick with me in my own yard because there were sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many I didn't want to lose them...and this year...although the flower buds seemed promising...I didn't even reap enough to enhance a bowl of breakfast cereal...so I had to find an alternative...at least for 2020.
Blueberry picking is a Joanne tradition. I did it with my Mom growing up...we would ride our bikes up the dirt road adjacent to my house, then turn right and follow the railroad tracks a bit and visit the same spots year after year after year. Our spot is no longer there...something like "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot"...only it's a hospital and a parking lot.
I'm pretty sure I skipped a decade or two of picking...my 20's and 30's there were many other agenda's on my calendar and summer therapy wasn't really missed...
But somewhere along the lines my husband pointed me to a spot along his daily commute where he had seen cars pulled to the side and assumed there was some good picking going on...and there was! And that's when I resumed my summer blueberry picking therapy sessions. It's not something I ever do alone, I'm a little too chicken shit...or cautious...call it what you wish...to trespass into the woods early in the am before the sun gets hot...or later into the evening by myself...but I've always been able to recruit a like minded friend to accompany me for a few hours at a time and spend some quiet time...each to ourselves...but within yelling distance if one needed too...picking and reflecting...or thinking...or working through something...which is why I call it therapy.
But this year that isn't the case. Knowing that our yard hadn't produced I asked my husband to accompany me to "my spot" so I could see if it was worth planning a therapy session the next morning or not...he did...and I discovered just as I feared...very few pickings...in a location I normally spend hours in...
So yes, it's my therapy, but my husband definitely reaps some rewards from it...Sunday night blueberry pancakes throughout the long winter nights. It's tradition! I pick until I can pick no more...then spend a few days cleaning and freezing and bagging...
So God bless his heart...the thought of a cold winter's Sunday night with the wood stove going and possibly some chocolate chip pancakes...what???!!
One of his co-workers...currently Zoom co-workers...told him about her trip out to Joan and Brad's for blueberry picking. Pay to pick is not really my idea of a therapy session, but we had the time...and desperate times...well you know...
It was a wonderful experience. Big place but not overly commercialized, so Covid social distancing was a piece of cake. We went early on Saturday morning and although we could hear some other folks, we never saw anyone else until it was time to leave. We brought home 15 cups in under two hours and under $20. Mission accomplished...there will be blueberry pancakes at the Minor house come that first cold Sunday evening of winter.
There are all sort's of variety to choose from and many many big ones too...ALL very sweet!!...but hubby like's the little ones for pancakes...and I have to agree with him! They provided us with a bucket you could hang around your neck and a gallon sized zip lock baggie inside (same as other u-pick places with Covid measures) and you know when it's time to quit...cause your bucket is heavy!! :) )
If you freeze them on a cookie sheet before you bag them...they stay prettier! (not sure who taught me that...but it wasn't Mom...we never had enough to freeze...and she never made blueberry pancakes...guess that is...once again...my own tradition.
Let me know what you do with your blueberries! I also make up a 4 cup baggie for my annual Thanksgiving blueberry pie too!! And...that colander with the big ones...that's for my morning Frosted Mini Wheat cereal! Tradition? You bet!!
(all photos taken with my Google Pixel 3A XL) Focus was on my hubby and the bucket around his neck...not the blueberry in his hand...
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