Blueberries
My grandparent’s blueberry patch when they had a house in New Hampshire, where we would go blueberry picking each year.
My fabulous artsy urban mom would try her hands at making blueberry jams and blueberry pie. This usually led to a
long discussion of how difficult it really is to make things from scratch and many laughs at the
various stains the berries left. It was a real out-of-the-ordinary experience for me having almost
always lived in an urban context.
Then, when I was 20 years old, I travelled through Romania and to Budapest and stayed
with a wonderful Seklar family in the Cascade mountains. I was incredibly impressed by their
youngest daughter, who was particularly fond of me since I was a designer for theater at the
time, and she was an aspiring designer herself (at 12). She wanted nothing more than to
experience an urban life, but I was in awe of this young girl’s knowledge of the flora and fauna
that surrounded her. She had never even been on a train and only once to a city in her life but
hiking with her was eye opening. How does this connect to blueberries, you may ask? Well, on
one of our hikes, we came upon a group of blueberry bushes, and she told the story of how
several families from the village had been blueberry picking the year before and while they
were picking, realized that it had gotten very quiet. Until they heard a grunt! On the other side
of the bush that they had been picking from was a mama bear picking blueberries herself! The
family escaped and it had become a favorite story of the village.
Blueberries, as you may have already guessed, make a lovely dye or ink. You may have
realized this after eating a whole bunch and having your tongue turn bright blue!
They make delicious pies (my favorite and original recipe I share here), they are great additives to doughs,
make lovely syrups and jams and are full of antioxidants. There are so many wonderful things to
do with blueberries, including popping them in your mouth while you pick them from the bush!
If you live in New England, you may already be aware that, every August there are many stores
in Maine where you can buy a 10-pound box of fresh blueberries for your freezer. It is a worthy
investment!
Blueberry Recipes
Lemon-lavender blueberry pie on an oatmeal crust
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• 1 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold
• 3/4 cup of oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 2tsp vanilla sugar
• 1⁄2 tsp salt
• 1⁄4 cup cold water
• 1 1⁄2 lb of fresh blueberries
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon, separated
• 3tsp dried lavender
• 1tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Cut butter into cubes and keep in refrigerator for 30 minutes while preparing the rest of
the dough.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Gather other ingredients.
4. Stir flour, sugar, oats, vanilla sugar, & salt together until fully mixed. (Dry ingredients)
5. Use your fingers to integrate butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like
crumbs. Add water 1tsp at a time until dough is smooth.
6. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes while preparing
blueberry mixture.
7. Clean and dry blueberries and place in medium sized bowl.
8. Process sugar, lavender, lemon zest & juice and vanilla extract in food process until it
creates a loose paste.
9. Cover blueberries in sugar mixture. Set aside.
10. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it
is evenly 1⁄4 inch thick all over.
11. Butter a pie pan thoroughly, making sure every crease is buttered.
12. Transport rolled out dough onto buttered pie pan and gently form to shape and trim off
extra. There should be no holes and no butter-bubbles!
13. Place pie pan in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.
14. Remove pie base from oven and add blueberry-sugar mixture into the center.
15. Bake pie for 20-25 minutes until bubbling and gorgeous.
16. Remove from oven and allow to cool on stove or on rack.
17. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream!
Dutch baby with Blueberries
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• 1 1⁄2 cup flour
• 1⁄2 tsp baking soda
• 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1⁄4 tsp nutmeg
• 1⁄4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 eggs OR 1⁄2 cup of chia seeds soaked in 1⁄4 cup of water
• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk OR milk substitute
• 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3tsp butter -
• Small cast-iron pan
• Fresh blueberries
• Powdered sugar
• Maple syrup
Instructions
1. Gather ingredients
2. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F with cast iron inside to pre-heat as well.
3. Stir flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon together until
thoroughly mixed. (Dry ingredients)
4. Whisk eggs/chia, sugar, milk/substitute and vanilla extract. (Wet ingredients)
5. Slowly add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed without any lumps
to make batter.
6. Take cast-iron pan out of oven and place butter in the hot pan, covering the whole
inside surface as the butter melts.
7. Pour batter into pan and place into heated oven. Bake for 20 minutes until golden
brown and puffy.
8. Remove from oven and place on heat-safe surface (cutting board or similar) on table.
9. Place blueberries in the middle of the dutch baby and sprinkle powdered sugar on top
using a fine mesh sieve.
10. Cut into slices and enjoy with maple syrup!
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