Summertime Blueberries

Clusters of blueberries on the stem

 
Some people might think I’m crazy to sit in a traffic jam for 20 minutes, park the car in a field of tall grass, pick my own fruit (in the rain), stand in line for 45 minutes to pay for it, then drive back to the city from rural Milford.  All for a few blueberries.

But these aren’t the berries you’ll find at the supermarket – most of them mushy and tasteless. Each of these is bursting with flavor, usually sweet, but sometimes tangy. And there’s something about that first day. Searching for the biggest, darkest blue berry, but loving the conversations that take place around the bushes ... berry recipes, family traditions, political commentary - some in several different languages. It’s an Easter egg hunt for foodies.


With (ahem) experience, you learn that the loveliest berries are sometimes hidden beneath the leaves and it’s really best to crouch down low and look up into the bush from many different angles. If the sun is in your eyes ... perfect. Other people will go to the shady side. It’s all about the benign competition and the annual Blueberry Cheese pie.

Rows and rows of blueberry bushes are ripe now through the middle of August at Rouster’s on State route 131 in Milford. Picking is only on Saturday mornings from 8 to Noon.