Blueberry Days
Aug 12, 2010 | From the kitchen of Rose
One of my fondest summer childhood memories was picking blueberries with my grandmother. It began with a visit to the hotel kitchen (her uncle owned Spring Lake Hotel in Parksville, NY) to ask for two large empty cans. A short walk away into the hilly countryside always rewarded us with several bushes of wild blueberries. We picked until the cans were full which took a while as I would eat as I picked. As you can see from the blue cast on my teeth in this photo, little has changed.
The bushes in the Catskills that once towered over my head as a child were replaced with the huge Pensylvania bushes at the George Schmidt Berry Farm that also towered over my head.
The farm offers many seasonal products for sale as well as a pick-your own berries. The blackberries were at least as large as those in Portland and Seattle which are the largest I'd ever seen prior to this day.
Picking blueberries this summer was part of a day-long and long-overdue tour of the area within an hour's drive from Hope. Maria Menegus joined me picking the berries which made it even more fun.
My resolve to retire some day to Hope was reaffirmed when the Meneguses introduced me to some of the many treasures of the area. I fell in love with it all: the charming Allentown with it's farmer's market that is the oldest in the country and beautiful old theater, Yuengling Brewery, also the oldest in the country, Wegmans ( oh joy!), Klein Farms Dairy & Creamery (raw milk and yogurt--double oh joy!) and Diedricks which has the most amazing selection of meat and other treasures such as bacon horseradish cheese and hickory nuts.
I will be revisiting these places, hopefully for years to come.
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Bill
08/17/2010 08:21 AM
Glad you hare having such a wonderful summer! Beautiful pictures and beautiful berries. Thanks for sharing them with us.
REPLY
Zach Townsend
08/13/2010 07:53 PM
What a wonderful trip and those blueberries and blackberries look so plump and juicy!
I would have loved to have had the opportunity to pick berries. We used to pick them in Kentucky when I was a kid, too.
Love the photos. You look very happy and very much in your element (great colorful shirt, too!).
Zach
REPLY
missyjean
08/13/2010 01:36 AM
I love blueberries and I love to bake with them. I made your apple crumb cake using blueberries and it was really delicious.
We have 9 blueberry bushes in our garden but we won't be eating any of them this year. A little chipmunk managed to weave its way through all the netting and sat there helping himself to all the berries :(
What berries we did salvage were so sweet and tender..nothing like waht is sold in stores
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Julie
08/12/2010 09:00 PM
Great to see you enjoying all that summer offers!
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Liza
08/12/2010 04:31 PM
Rose,
Wild blueberries are the best. They have the most delicious flavor. I also remember picking blueberries as a child with my grandmother and my mother in PEI. They grow in the ditches along the road at my grandmother's house. Which would be made into blueberry pie, cake and muffins. I think I ate more than I picked.
Sometimes I see blueberries on sale at the grocery store but they tend to be the really large ones that don't have a whole lot of flavor.
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