Saturday, September 10, 2011

Wild Blueberries

This morning my toddler and I went blueberry picking. Just behind our house is a patch of wild blueberries. Did I mention that I love living in the country? At first I was very ambitious, because I know that these blueberries are fantastic for blueberry pies. As I started picking, my daughter was very helpful in holding the container for me, and eating the blueberries as I put them into the container. So I decided if I could get a cup of them without her eating them we might just have enough for blueberry muffins. I did manage to get the container away from her and pick enough. Right before she fell into a patch of mud and declared, "Dirty, Cold" so we had to go away.
Now a word about these east coast blueberries. They in no way resemble the beautiful large blueberries of the Fraser Valley that I grew up with. I happen to have some of those on hand right now as I found them at Costco. Look at them. They are so completely different that when I first moved here, I couldn't quite believe they were blueberries.
My Fraser Valley blueberries grow on these tall bushes and are perfect for snacking on. The Maritime blueberries grow close to the ground and people rake them to collect them. I know, raking blueberries! (My maritime friends are thinking, 'and the problem is?')
So I did bake these tiny blueberries into some delicious banana blueberry muffins. Here's the recipe:

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 bananas, mashed
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup blueberries

Heat the oven to 375°F. Prepare your muffin cups by spraying with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, mash the bananas, mix in applesauce, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Stir in the blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin tins.
Bake for 20 minutes in the heated oven or until the tops of the muffins spring back when pressed lightly. This made 24 mini-muffins and 7 medium sized ones. I had to do the mini muffins for the mini blueberries :)




1 comment:

  1. You want to hear something funny, Kris? When I first moved to the Fraser Valley I was so upset because I couldn't get any "real" blueberries - as in the tiny, wild kind. I've always thought big, domestic blueberries were too fleshy and, well, frankly not REAL blueberries, but some sort of strange blueberry-type monster.

    And when I first saw blueberry bushes I thought "Those are way too tall. How can they possibly be blueberry bushes?"

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