Blueberries on the floor and other musings...

So we are seeing a lot of these lately.  We are experiencing a bumper crop.  We have also had no rain.  This makes for happy blueberries.  So we pick and then pick some more.  Today we had some u-pickers.  That was interesting.  The little boys, who came with their mom, got into the ditch beside the blueberries and were top to toe in black peat mud.  I hosed them off.  With their mom's permission.  But I digress.  This is the time of year where blueberries are often found on the floor in the kitchen.  It just happens.  

We are rather new to the whole business of blueberries and as we bought an established farm, we don't have any information about the actual varieties so we make up names.  We really like picking marble berries.  They are big, round and tasty.  But the best berries are the cake berries.  They are HUGE!!!!!  I put them next to our now defunct Canadian penny.  That is a marble berry on the far right.  The cake berries are on the left.  They are they best.

The recipe from yesterday...
Let them eat cake
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen  (the original recipe asks for 1 and 1/2 cups of blueberries but we kinda think go big or go home)

In a large bowl, cream shortening and add sugar gradually.  Add egg.  Mix the dry ingredients.  Add to batter along with the milk, vanilla and blues.  Pour the batter into an 8" by 8" pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 50 to 55 minutes, less if you are skimpy on the blues.  Or if you are feeling so inclined, pop them into cupcake papers and make 8 jumbo to die for blueberry cupcake muffins.  Oh my goodness.  So fabulous.  Bake those for about 40 minutes but watch them.

So there.  Check the floor after baking.  Blueberries just have a way of landing there and trust me, they aren't pretty when you step on them.  Ick.

Linking up with Cindy at Random Thursday.

time for tea

Mmm, yummy!  What's the good of having a blog named Blueberry Patch if I never talk about the blueberries.  Yep, we have blueberries.  Husband and I pick a lot of blueberries in the summer.  We invite friends and family to pick blueberries and there are still too many blueberries.  Last summer we picked and picked and picked some more and then we decided enough already.  We walked from the patch and said good enough, we're done.  Overnight the birds came.  It was as if they were waiting their turn and that we would eventually put up the "Birds welcome!" sign and then they could feast.  It was most polite of them.  And feast they did.

Mum brought Grampa out for tea this afternoon.  Husband made a blueberry cake. And feast we did.

Blueberry Coffee Cake from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book
(best fresh from the oven)

Cake
4 Tablespoons butter, softened                   1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar                                              1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg                                                           1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla                                       1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup flour

Streusel topping  (and Husband says it is much more fun to double the topping!)
1/3 cup flour                                               1/2 cup sugar (and Husband used brown sugar he says)
1 Tablespoons butter                                  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
                                                                   1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour an 8 x 8" pan.
To make the cake:  combine butter, sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until thoroughly blended.  Add egg and vanilla and mix well.  Mix the dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture along with the milk.  Beat until smooth.  Spread into pan and sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the batter.

To make the topping:  Combine flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Work together with fingertips until light dry crumbs.  Spread over blueberries and bake 50-60 minutes until a tester comes out clean.  Serve warm from the pan and give your Grampa a hug.  One for your Husband too if he made the cake or just because.

Happy Thursday!

Sunny day!

After weeks of gloomy weather today was bright, clear and crisp.  I took a photo of yesterday's pillow.  I bought a bag of 2.5" wide scraps at the fabulous local quilt shop for $2.95 and they magically transformed themselves into this lovely pillow.  Rail fence.  Cut the strips to 4.5" and made the blocks.  Played with the layout a little bit, added the strip around the edge for a border.  The strip was in the bag too.  Stippled it in taupe.  Added a back, with a simple envelope closure.  Shazam, pillow!  

And while I was having fun with the sewing machine today, Husband was in the blueberry patch pruning.  He has been waiting for the rain to let up.

The yellow cord is not leading to some snazzy, electric blueberry bush pruner but the extension cord to Husband's ever present radio.  

Webster was helping with the pruning and then before I went back inside, I peeked into the big woods to see what was new... and it just looked lovely as always.