I’ve always considered myself a city girl. I grew up just a short train ride from Manhattan and often traveled to the city for dinners and cultural events with my family, or just a day of shopping with my Mom. As I got older, I would go in with friends to catch a matinee or spend a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
When I was a teenager, my parents bought a piece of property about an hour away, at the beginning of the Catskills we have always called “The Farm”. Here I learned about gardening, helping my Dad as he grew tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, and peas. I also learned about cooking as this produce came into the kitchen for my Mom to prepare.
Still, I have always thought of myself as a city girl… until recently.
As I’ve traveled to Costa Rica with Franz, a whole new way of living close to the land has opened up for me… but more about that in posts to come.
Now, I’m visiting my sister Genevieve and her family, who have built their home on The Farm. My brother-in-law John, like my Dad, loves to garden and is growing the most beautiful zucchini and tomatoes. He also has a prolific blueberry patch. Today Gen said it was time to pick them, so I offered to help.
We walked down to the garden, sunglasses on and bucket in hand. I wondered to myself why we were bringing such a big bucket. I was soon enlightened.
The bushes were quite large (taller than I, at 5’1”) and heavily laden with bunches of berries of various colors from pale greenish yellow to rose pink to dark blue. They grow in clusters, almost like grapes, and every dark ripe blueberry has to be gently picked by hand, leaving the rest to ripen and be picked in the weeks to come. Of course, we sampled a few as we picked, and Gen said that there were different varieties, resulting in different size berries, and different flavors.
Slowly, our bucket was filling up, but it took over an hour to get all the ripe ones. As I was carefully picking the berries and chatting with my sister, I realized how much I was enjoying the work and being outside on this beautiful day.
I also love the idea of picking blueberries with the intention of preparing them. Our haul was over 8 pounds and Gen said it was their biggest pick yet!
Today was the sixth harvest so far this season, and there are still lots more berries yet to ripen.
I’ve also been enjoying the amazing taste of the tomatoes picked from the vines. They are now just beginning to ripen, and the flavor is as intense as the color. Add a little of Elaine’s great Olive Oil, some fresh garden herbs, and a drizzle of Giovanni’s Balsamic and you have perfection!
So maybe I’m not the City Girl I thought I was.
Now comes the fun part of deciding how we will prepare our bountiful blueberries. Gen and I both love blueberry crisp, so we searched the web and finally settled on a recipe. Now, the real work started…
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