Adventures in Blueberry Picking!
Blueberry Picking

Adventures in Blueberry Picking!

This year was my first experience with blueberry picking. NOTHING compares to the taste of a freshly picked blueberry! So sweet! So delicious!

My mom, the kids, and I were chomping at the bit for our local blueberry patch to open their U-Pick fields. The first day they opened – we were there!

They gave us 5 gallon buckets to use while picking. Do you know how many blueberries fit in a 5 gallon bucket? A LOT!

You can eat berries while you pick, so the kids had a blast picking and eating while my mom and I tried to fill these buckets.

We each had our 5 gallon bucket halfway full when I realized that we had already picked more than we needed. This realization also happened right around the time both of my kids had a sweaty, loud meltdown right there in the blueberry patch. Coincidence?!

When we checked out the cashier told me my bill was $44. What?!?! Apparently we had picked 10lbs of blueberries (face palm)!

Oh well, we now have plenty of blueberries for all the recipes I want to try!

Things to remember Next Time we Go Blueberry Picking:

  • Make sure you “Like” your local blueberry patch on Facebook. They will usually post when the blueberries are ripe and what day they will be open for picking.
  • Try to go the first weekend they are open. We made this mistake with strawberries and barely got any. Next year we won’t make that mistake!!
  • Have an idea of how many you want before you start. We didn’t and ended up with W A Y more than we needed. It’s okay because we froze a bunch, but we probably didn’t need 10lbs of blueberries.
  • Bring a container to take them home in. Most places have buckets for you to use while picking, but once they weigh them during checkout they want their buckets back.
  1. Give them all a good wash. I had to wash ours in batches since we picked so many.
  2. Let them dry completely. I put a hand towel on the counter and let them sit there for 15-20 minutes.
  3. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
  4. Place washed/dried blueberries in a single layer on parchment lined pan.
  5. Stick pan in freezer for 1-2 hours or until firm.
  6. Remove from pan and put in freezer safe plastic bags.
  7. Put bag of frozen berries in freezer.
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