One weekend a month I go to the Blueberry Gardens Center for Yoga, Growth, and Healing in Ashton, Maryland. I’ve been waiting since January for the U-pick blueberry season. According to their website, blueberries grow in a series of short seasons — I was there a month ago and blueberries weren’t ready and now they’re almost all gone. That was the early season variety, though, the mid and late season varieties will be ready in July and August.
Luckily when I got there the picking was in full swing. My blueberry plants at home usually have a handful of berries each so I was surprised how full these plants were – you can fill a whole container from one plant. I thought I was going to be walking up and down rows looking for berries and I only went to two plants.
A great benefit of picking from a local, organic farm, is that you can eat the fruit right off the vine – no pesticides or herbicides are used. You can ask at the farm to be sure, but unless it’s a factory organic farm, they probably only fertilize with compost.
Next week I’ll make some things with blueberries, like blueberry waffles, let’s see … blueberry cobbler … what else? But for now it’s late and I’m too tired – so I’m just going to eat some plain.
