Summer | Lemon Blueberry Crumble

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All that lemon Pledge is making me hungry!

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I grew tired of drinking blueberry smoothies two days into making them. The only antidote to all that healthy eating (while not wasting the blueberries I'd picked) was something extra sugary and buttery.

Enter: the lemon blueberry crumble.

I've adapted a Smitten Kitchen recipe because I don't always have refined sugar or cornstarch at the ready for baking, substituting brown sugar for white sugar without changing the ratios.

• 1 cup brown sugar
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• zest and juice of one lemon
  
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 6 tsp flour
  
  
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. The dough should be crumbly. Place half of your dough into the prepared pan.
  3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, flour (or 3 tsps of cornstarch, if you have it) and lemon juice. Mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares, or the blueberries will ooze out.
  5. Refrigerate the crumble, or give away to friends who love lemony, tart desserts.
  

NOTE:
The original recipe simply called it a "blueberry crumble", but the amount of lemon zest and juice involved overpowered my delicious, freshly-picked blueberries, so the name change was a must - but it still tasted good, according to my guinea pigs friends.

A few days in the fridge mellowed out the tart lemon flavor of the crumble. Next time, though, I'll make one with just half a lemon (or maybe none at all) to get more of a blueberry flavor. I'll try some cinnamon on it as well.

Stay tuned!

Summer | Blueberry Picking

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Peaceful and scrumptious.

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Ready for the most important rule for picking blueberries? "You must eat while you pick", according to the cute jail bait working the shed. If you're going to do that, you'd better pick organic blueberries.

I went to Chance Creek Blues. You can eat them while you pick and not choke on pesticides. Chances are you'll be chowing on some all-natural fertilizer and insect larvae in the process, but that's part of getting back to nature!

Rule two: pick the darkest berries. Have you ever heard someone say, "The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice"? Well, they know their blueberries.

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Red means stop, green blue means go.

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Rule three: Blueberries are blue. See the red blueberry in my palm above? Don't pick blueberries that look like that. It's tart, waiting to ripen, and it isn't even blue! Blueberries are one of those pain in the ass fruits that don't ripen off the vine, so it's a totally wasted berry, and if too many people pick unripened berries they can ruin the farm's future prospects - ruining the fun for everyone else.

One last note: while I was at the farm, the jail bait advised me to "stick to one bush" and get all the ripe fruit. That may not seem like the most efficient way to pick berries, but I almost filled my bucket picking on just two bushes. That's FOUR POUNDS OF BLUEBERRIES!

Oh well ... at least I won't have to buy any more blueberries for a while!

If you want to try your hand at picking berries, check out PickYourOwn.Org for local growers who will let you get your hands dirty while you eat healthy.