Farmer's Market 6-18 & 6-23 - Playing Catch Up

This summer is a blur of visitors and we are enjoying it so much. I think we have visitors scheduled every week but one through the start of school in August. What fun! We are managing to get most of our "groceries" from the farmers market and we are also getting a lot of food put up which makes me happy. I love that our fall and winter meals will include some local foods that we are getting from farmers right now.

Last week we were given lots of squash and we dehydrated a good bit of it along with carrots, peppers, and tomatoes from the market to keep as a soup mix. We plan to add it to a crock pot full of our chicken stock in the winter and enjoy local veggie soup. We also dehydrated lots of tomatoes for snacking (we eat them like chips - yum!!) and for pizzas later, and we made blueberry "raisins". We are over run with peaches and squash this week, so I'm thinking peach leather and more dehydrated squash.

Last week from the market, we got, clockwise from top left: Personal watermelons, a big watermelon (one of the BEST I've ever tasted), blueberries, cantaloupe, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peaches, squash, cucumbers (with reddish brown skins), another cantaloupe, basil, zucchini, carrots and not pictured, milk. We enjoyed lots of it fresh and dehydrated or froze some.

On Thursday, a neighbor came over and brought us the lovely veggies pictured above. The tomatoes and peppers became salsa and the squash is in the dehydrator right now. The cucumbers are being enjoyed with meals.

We've been up to a lot at the little cabin. I'll try to post more soon :)

Farmer's Market and Menu Plan

For the last year or so, I have been going to the farmer's market without my older children. It was a nice chance to have some quiet time, plus they had lost interest in a lot of the process of shopping for food and preferred to hang out at home and have some "Dad time". With watermelon coming in to season and me having to shop with the baby, it was either one of them come with me or we have no watermelon . . . so my oldest came with me and, as it turned out, enjoyed himself :)

Most of the above photo contains our farmer's market purchases, though the dairy and seafood (!!!) is not pictured (milk and mozzarella, fresh water prawns and catfish) and the items in the front right corner come from our wonderful neighbor's garden. From top left, clockwise: Cucumber, blackberries, basil (in the baggie), tomatoes, round zucchini, individual sized watermelon, green bell peppers, onions, blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, more onions, garlic and potatoes (in the bowl), squash, cucumbers, banana peppers (all three from our neighbor), and peaches. We also bought another fig tree. When we couple these items with the chicken and beef we have in our freezer from past farmer's markets and a few other items with have stored up, there are many meal options. Here is what I've come up with so far (local items are in bold):

Roasted Veggie Omelet - (eggs from our hens, butter, onions, squash, zucchini) with tomato and cucumber salad.

Pesto Chicken Sandwich on homemade foccacia bread - (basil, olive oil, walnuts, Parmesan cheese; chicken, tomatoes, mozzarella) with cantaloupe

Roasted Chicken, squash/ zucchini pasta (cooked pasta, sauted onions and zucchini or squash, butter, basil, Parmesan cheese), peaches

Stuffed Zucchini (ground beef, onions, butter, squash, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, cheese), blueberries

Burgers, browned potatoes, caramelized onions, watermelon

Spaghetti with meat sauce, bread sticks, steamed broccoli (we can't go without broccoli, even if it is not in season or local - oldest ds loves it), cantaloupe

Stuffed Green Peppers (onions, peppers, some of the prawns, rice, butter, some sort of thickener - probably corn starch - for a binder, cheese), peaches

We are also planning to use some of our peaches and blueberries for smoothies. In addition, we have family coming in today and they are bringing tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini from the garden. We will make salsa for snacking (not enough to can) with some of it (using our peppers and onions and some store bought cilantro). I also envision blueberry smoothies in our future.

It is so exciting to be in the early days of summer with so much available to us from local growers. At the market over the weekend, we were told that plums and figs will soon be available. We love these both for eating fresh and also for preserving. Can't wait!! In addition, we have made arrangements to buy "canner" tomatoes from a farmer so that we can put up salsa, spaghetti sauce and tomato puree. We also have blueberries and blackberries in the freezer that are destined to become syrup this week. I used to put up jam, but we don't really eat much jam here. Syrup, I think, will work better (we've already used up all the peach syrup I made a few weeks ago - we use it on pancakes and waffles, plus we use it in yogurt).

What's on your menu this week?

I am submitting this to Menu Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie.

Locally Sourced Meats

We are so blessed to have farmers near us that raise pastured poultry, grass fed beef and grass fed lamb. We also have a source for local shrimp, but not one for fish. Well, not until a few weeks ago. That's when we decided to see if we did, as promised, have stocked pond on our property.

We DO!! The boys caught several fish including bass and brim.

("I caught you a delicious bass." Points if you can identify that movie quote.)

My parents were visiting at the time, so N and my Dad cleaned them and we cooked them for dinner. Absolutely delicious!

My boys like fish, but I have never seen them eat so enthusiastically. We don't want to over fish the pond, so we are going to keep our fishing down to once a month or so. Since it has been a month, we are going to try again to catch dinner this week. Wish us luck :)

Menu Plan: August 30-Sept 5, 2010

This week, we are having a "clean out the freezer" week as our fall beef order is scheduled to be ready this weekend and we are also getting 6 fryers and a duck (!!!) from our pastured poultry farmer this weekend.

Here is our menu. Locally grown or raised items are in bold.

Breakfasts:

*Oatmeal with pecans and honey
*Yogurt with honey or maple syrup and sliced pears
*Granola (local honey and pecans) and milk
*Scrambled Eggs and grits (someone now raises and grinds several different corn products and sells them at our farmer's market).
*Pancakes or waffles with maple syrup or honey and cut up fruit
*Peach and blueberry smoothie

Lunch:

Leftovers
Baked Potatoes
Freezer Meals that have been packaged in individual servings

Dinner:

Grilled T-Bones and Sirloins (using up the last of our spring beef order) with baked potatoes and steamed broccoli

Spaghetti (we are using rice noodles since regular noodles do not agree with hubby - i hope we like them), green salad and sauted squash

Homemade Pizza (plain cheese or cheese and black olives for the boys and what ever we can find in the freezer to use as toppings for hubby and I) and a green salad

Roasted chicken, sweet corn and sweet potatoes (though I may try Alea's sweet potato recipe if I can get my hands on some cauliflower)

Tuna burgers with home grown micro-greens (if they are ready to use by then) and cut up fruit

Soup (probably chicken noodle that way we can use up lots of our frozen local veggies) and cornbread (cornmeal and eggs from the market)

Ok, so while I am excited beyond belief to be getting a pasture raised duck from our poultry farmer, I am unsure of how to prepare it. I'd really like to just roast this one to keep it as simple as possible to see if the family likes duck. Anyone have any tips? TIA :)

Menu Plan Monday 8-31-09

This week is going to be a Pantry Challenge week - a week where we try to create all of our meals with items we already have on hand. This week, I am hoping to only need to buy milk and maybe onions (but only if we run out). Here is our menu and as always, the locally grown items will be in bold.

Breakfasts (with repeats):
Banana nut pancakes with butter and honey or maple syrup
Eggs and Bacon
Oatmeal with flax, walnuts, pecans, coconut oil, butter, and blueberries
Kefir Smoothies

Lunch (with a fruit and a veggie):
Peanut Butter and Honey or Jam
Turkey Sandwiches
Breakfast Burritos
Leftovers

Snacks:
Homemade bread with honey butter
Pears
Kefir Smoothies
Yogurt with fruit preserves or maple syrup (my favorite!!)
Banana nut bread
Watermelon (such a yummy yellow flesh watermelon grown by a farmer we know)
Fig-Pecan Pinwheels
Carrots, Cucumbers and Cherry Tomatoes with ranch dip
Herb Cream Cheese and Crackers
Chips and Salsa
Hummus and chips

Supper:
Grass-fed beef burgers with caramelized onions, cheese and homemade buns with sweet potato fries and watermelon.

Chicken Noodle Soup (summer squash, zucchini, broccoli, navy beans, spinach, corn, small pasta shapes) and homemade bread with honey butter.

Tuna Burgers on homemade buns with a side salad (if the lettuce is still fresh) or carrots and cucumbers (if the lettuce is not fresh anymore)

Shrimp and Potato soup and pan roasted asparagus blend veggies.

Honey Mustard Chicken with purple hull peas and broccoli

Panfried Tilapia with black beans and brown rice (made with homemade beef broth) and any veggies we still have on hand

Butternut Squash Soup and what ever else we still have in the fridge

What are you having this week? Share your menu at I'm An Organizing Junkie (will link as soon as her post is up).

Menu Plan Monday 8-10-09

Yesterday was the third time I do a two week shopping trip and I have to say that the more time passes, the more I love shopping for two weeks worth of groceries at a time. It seems crazy to me that just two little changes in our shopping habits could affect our budget so much, but between not shopping at Walmart any more and shopping for two weeks of groceries at a time, we have cut our grocery expenditures by over $30 per week. I think that part of the reason our expenses are coming down is that while Walmart is less expensive on some items, they are more expensive on other items (the one's we bought most often). Plus, I think that Walmart is designed to get you to spend more money (and I do not fault them for this - they are in business to make money), and when shopping with kids, it I have a hard time spending an entire hour saying "no" to everything, so I usually give in more than I do at Kroger.

We also hit our farmer's market at least once a week, though we try to go twice a week for fresh produce. Last week, we did an eat local challenge, trying to eat only locally grown/ raised foods. We did okay, though by the end of the week, we were eating non-local proteins. Still, we enjoyed the challenge very much and it pushed me to try harder to find local protein sources and get to know our local farmers better.

Here is this week's menu. All locally grown items are in bold.

Breakfast:

Oatmeal with pecans or walnuts and dried cranberries, blueberries or strawberries
Scrambled Eggs and fruit (pears, cantaloupe, watermelon)
Kefir Smoothie (blueberries)

Lunch:
Leftovers from Dinner
Chicken Salad Sandwiches with heirloom tomatoes and pickles
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and grapes and strawberries
Peanut butter and honey or jelly sandwiches with cucumbers

Snacks:
Kefir Smoothies (blueberries)
Watermelon
Strawberries
Cantaloupe
Pears or Pear Sauce
Applesauce Muffins made with pear sauce (substituting pear sauce for the apple sauce, whole milk for the skim and butter for the veggie oil).
Coconut, Macadamia Nut Cookies (sugar cookie recipe with coconut and macadamia nuts added)
Grapes
Chips and Salsa
Peaches
Blueberry fruit leather
Cheese cubes
Popcorn (popped in coconut oil on the stove top - this stuff is so delicious!)
Homemade Bread with honey butter

Dinner:
Baked Chicken with Rosemary Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli, and Purple "Green" Beans (found these and some heirloom tomatoes at the farmer's market on Saturday)

Italian Crockpot Black Eyed Pea Soup with a green salad (cucumbers and tomatoes)

Steak with purple hull peas, sauted squash and cantaloupe

Lasagna, green salad (cukes and tomatoes) and baked patty pan squash

The soup and the lasagna both make lots of leftovers, plus we will be eating out at least once this week, so I think I will only have to cook four nights this week :o) .

Visit I'm an Organizing Junkie and Menu Plan Monday.

Eating Local Update for Thursday

As this week progresses and we try to stay with a mostly local diet, it becomes clear that being extremely organized and prepared is essential to having a varied diet. Its funny. Eating a SAD (Standard American Diet) diet (years ago) which contains mostly corn seems so varied, yet eating a wider variety of things by eating real food from local sources seems limiting this week as we actually do it. I wonder why our bodies are reacting this way. I mean, with the exception of our protein source, we had a great deal of variety available to us, yet it does feel like we are eating the same things over and over again. Local stuff we have:

Beef
Eggs
Yellow Squash
Patty Pan Squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Basil
Parsley
Pears
Potatoes
Blueberries (frozen)
Cucumbers
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Pecans
Onions
Oregano
Salsa
Pickles
Pickled Peppers
Pickled Okra
Figs
Red Peppers

This is a pretty big list of stuff, yet this week, it does not feel like a lot. I really think it might be the limited protein sources. We are used to eating a great deal more chicken and fish and since they are not on the list, I think we are missing them more acutely. Last night, we did have chicken (not local) with our locally grown veggies - and I remembered to take a picture :o)

We had chicken Parmesan with local cantaloupe, cucumbers and sliced sweet potatoes sauteed in butter and celtic sea salt. So yummy! That settles it - I've got to get serious about finding a local source of clean chicken. I'm going to ask every farmer this weekend at the markets (we are planning to go to three farmer's markets) if they know of anyone who has chicken available to sell. There has to be someone.

Farmer's Market Finds and Eat Local Challeng Update

There were only 3 farmer's at our mid week market, but they each had something different, so we ended up with a nice variety of things (we bought something from everyone). I am particularly excited about the cantaloupe as it may be one of the last we have this season. One of the amazing benefits of a challenge like that is that we are trying new things and since there is very little fruit in season in our area right now, we are learning to like pears (I'll be 40 in a few days and this is the FIRST time in my life that I've actually enjoyed eating pears!) We also made pear sauce out of some of them and have enjoyed that as well.

You know, eating locally has really stretched us over the years. Were it not for wanting to support local farmers we would never have tried and learned to like things like kale, cooked cabbage and beets. In fact, its hard for me to believe that only 3 years ago, I had to ask the farmer what to do with the cabbage we were buying, lol. I've also learned to like some things in their natural state that I used to only eat cooked into something else. For example, tomatoes and blueberries. Until this year, only my dh would eat blueberries out of hand, but now we all do and we love them! And until last year, I did not like fresh sliced tomatoes (I think because grocery store tomatoes are so Styrofoam like), but now - yum!

We have been eating local eggs for breakfast the last few days. Today I have an early appointment, so we will probably just have the leftover pancakes from Monday (in the freezer) with local honey. Tuesday we had pizza for lunch - they boys just wanted plain cheese, I made mine with caramelized local onions. Tuesday's supper was BBQ grassfed beef sandwiches with local tomatoes. I'm sure we had other things to eat that day, but on Tuesday I felt particularly sick, and I don't remember everything we had. Yesterday's lunch was PB sandwiches and we made and enjoyed some yummy fig pinwheel cookies (now I know what we will do with all of our fig preserves). The cookies are delicious, though a bit rich (they contain our homegrown fig preserves and local pecans), which is a good thing, because it keeps me from eating too many of them, lol.
We made burger buns yesterday and for supper we had tuna burgers (at dh's request) with pears and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. It is hard to imagine for me, but we are getting tired of eating beef. I think today we will probably have chicken to go with our yummy local veggies from the market.

So far, making an effort to eat only or almost only locally grown foods has been a fun and eye opening experiment. It has stretched us in some interesting ways and I'm hoping to put together a wrap up post about it over the weekend.

Even Ma Ingalls Did It

For much of human history, people have been trading their surplus with others who had a different surplus so that both had things they needed. Even Ma Ingalls used store bought flour, salt and sugar as well as other things to round out her pantry. So, I'd like to believe that I'm really not all that different than Ma Ingalls since we made pancakes for breakfast this morning, using non-local grains, lol. Hey, but we did use local eggs and honey. And if we were living in the prairie days, we would not have had butter for our pancakes without also having a cow, which we don't. So, I for one am grateful that we had yummy pastured, cultured butter at our store.

Ok, here's what we've had so far today. As mentioned, breakfast was pancakes made with many different grains, local pastured eggs, local blueberries and local pecans. And we smothered it in local honey. I think we did pretty good there on our eat local week challenge. The kids snacked on figs from the trees here, and a watermelon from the market. Also we made pear sauce in the crock pot with the pears we got at the market last weekend. Lunch was turkey sandwiches (the beef was not finished cooking at lunch time) with local tomatoes. Not as local as breakfast, but still, we did include something local. Supper, which is almost done is a roast of local grass fed beef with rosemary potatoes (both local) and sauted squash (local). Our oldest son loves broccoli so we are also having broccoli tonight, which is not local. That's ok. I'm glad I can get broccoli for him and I'm happy he likes it. Over all,I think our first day has gone really well, as we are not yet sick of eating the same things over and over, lol. I'll try to remember to get a picture of supper and if I manage to do it, I'll edit the post to include it.

Eat Local Week - Aug 2 - 8

Our hometown newspaper had an article in the Saturday edition which mentioned that Eat Local Week was being celebrated in many parts of the country the week of Aug 2-8, including our home town. We usually try to eat locally grown as often as possible, but this week, I think we'll take the challenge and see if we can eat more locally than usual. We usually eat a few things a day that are local. I wonder how local we can make our diet for one week. I'll try to blog our eating for the week. I know we don't have a source of local grains, though we can try to cut that back a lot. We also don't have local cheese (at least I haven't found any yet), and our milk is not "local" in the sense that we bought it from a farmer, but we do have local fruits and veggies, eggs, meat and even some nuts. I think we can do a lot with that and then just fill in around the edges with non-local stuff. I think it will be fun - at least that's the plan - if it gets to be a stressful chore, we'll stop. I'll post a menu in the morning once I have a chance to inventory the pantry and freezer.

Free Locally Grown Plums!!

Look what dh brought home from the office today!! One of his co-workers is a hobby farmer and he brought us PLUMS!! When I first saw the bag, I thought I'd make plum jam with some of them, but I don't think that will happen because over half of them are already gone. They were so delicious we couldn't stop eating. You will never find flavor like that in a grocery store plum. Our youngest commented that he'd like to have many plum trees so that he could sell some at the farmer's market and help other people have good food. I hope one day he gets his wish.

I know a Secret

Click here to enter my giveaway.

I have a secret. I know where you can get the most delicious food in the world, and its within 30-50 miles from where you live (most people in the USA, anyway).

When produce must be picked before its ripe so that it can hop a train or flight just to get to your local grocery store, it never has the chance to soak up the sun as it ripens and fully develop its flavors. But, when you visit your farmer's market to buy locally grown produce, eggs and meat, you have the best tasting food at your fingertips. We love buying locally grown food and cannot believe just how delicious fruits and veggies can be when in season. In fact, we find that we gorge (in a good way, of course) on in season farmer's market find such as sweet corn, peaches, berries, carrots, watermelon and tomatoes (ah, the tomatoes!!!).

Plus, buying locally grown food helps your community. Supporting your local farmers is one of the most important things you can do. Your local farmers depend upon customers to be able to make a living. No income? No Farmers. No Farmers? No food! So, visit www.localharvest.org and find your local farmer's market (most areas have farmers' markets either currently open or opening in the next few weeks) and make a commitment to visit and shop your market. Get to know the farmers. Buy their fruits, veggies, eggs and meat. Support them and enjoy the best tasting food in the world.

Check out Tammy's Recipes for Kitchen Tips Tuesday.

Eating local?

My parents came to visit last week and brought with them a cabbage they had grown in their garden. Does that qualify as local (we live 4+ hours away from them), or will I just have to be satisfied with the fact that I know the "farmers"?

We ate it last night with supper. Here it is before I chopped it up.

We made it into Asian Slaw and cheated by using bottled dressing :o) It was yummy.

Menu Plan Monday - July 14, 2008

We found these amazing tomatoes at the farmer's market this weekend. They are heirloom (so of course the boys and I saved the seeds). Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of them before we ate them all (did I mention they were amazing?) so I found a picture that looked like them online and I'm borrowing it until we can get more that I can photograph. Here's what they look like:
I sure hope he has more this week! He also had 3 other varieties of heirloom tomatoes including one that looked like a Roma, but was bright yellow. I'm hoping to try that one this week as well.

Our menu for this week (remember, the bold items are locally grown/ raised):

Breakfast :
Blueberry muffins and yogurt
Ham and cheese biscuit and blackberries
Scrambled Eggs and grits
Baked Oatmeal with peaches
Whole grain pancakes with blueberry syrup

Lunch:
The usual:
PB & honey
BLT (with lettuce sprouts)
Grilled Cheese


Snacks:
Watermelon slices
Peaches
Cucumbers and carrots dipped in ranch dressing
Berry Smoothie (with homemade yogurt)
Pumpkin bread
Blueberry Scones
Yummy Eggs (my 5 year old calls deviled eggs yummy eggs)
Biscuits with honey butter
Blueberry popsicles


Supper:
Tuna Burgers on dressed rolls (tomatoes, red and purple peppers, onion), new potato "salad" (dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper) and asparagus (from freezer)

Hamburger Steak (its a burger browned then braised in beef stock) over garlic mashed new potatoes with zuke/ squash medley and we're going to have some sort of fruit desert, maybe fig cobbler (if we have any fig preserves left by then)

Baked Chicken, tomato and cucumber salad, black beans and brown rice.

Make-your-own Pizza (dh has a meeting one night this week so the kids and I will have pizza that night) with veggie tray and watermelon

Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup (also features local garlic and onion), Chicken quesadillas with sour cream and guacamole and cantaloupe

Pan Fried Tilapia with pesto, homemade bread, spaghetti squash (the farmer suggested we cut it in half, sprinkle with salt and olive oil then roast in the oven until fork tender - we've never had spaghetti squash before, so this will hopefully be a fun experiment, even if it turns out to be inedible),

Leftover buffet

Check out I'm An Organizing Junkie for more Menu Plan Monday

Indoor Greens Experiment

Well, they are already starting to get spindly as they make a desperate reach for the sunlight. I'm going to try a different window, but I'm starting to understand why people get an Aerogarden. I may invest in a grow light this weekend, while my Dad is here to help.

Beef Stock

At the farmer's market earlier this week, the grass-fed beef farmer had soup bones for sale in addition to the regular cuts of meat and ground beef. We pick up some and they are in the crockpot right now being turned into stock. Tonight we're having local french onion soup (well, the beef stock is local and so are the onions) to go with our local panini. I'm so pleased to have a source for healthy beef stock - yay!

Canning Local Fruit and Berries

Here's what I did this afternoon. The blueberries were picked just this morning when the boys and I went to a U-Pick blueberry farm. The peaches were grown by a local farmer :o) All in all a really fun day :o)

Farmer's Market Find

I put this box of granola bars in the picture to give a little perspective. This is one huge cantaloupe. Its actually the size of a small watermelon. Before I cut it up, I weighed it! 10 lbs, 8 oz.

The farmer who grows these is at the market each week with both cantaloupe and watermelons and his are the best we've ever had! As soon as they are in season in your area, I highly recommend locally grown, organic watermelon and cantaloupe - you will not believe the difference.

Menu Plan Monday - June 23, 2008

Visit the Organizing Junkie for hundreds of menus.

Here's what we're having this week. I'm putting all locally grown items in bold.

Breakfast:

Baked Oatmeal
Toast with Blueberry Jam
Eggs and grits
Banana Nut Pancakes
Yogurt and fruit

Lunch (will include one fruit and one veggie):

Broccoli Cheese Soup
Grilled Cheese
PB & honey
Turkey Sandwhich
Chicken Salad Sandwhich


Snacks:

Carrot and Cucumber sticks with ranch dip
Blueberry Popsicles
Smoothies (strawberries, blueberries, bananas, yogurt, orange juice)
pumpkin scones
plums
watermelon (holy cow - this is the best watermelon I've ever had!)
Hummus and pita

Supper:

*Chicken Stir Fry over rice (some of the veggies for the stir fry are local - squash, onion, and green beans for sure and possibly more, depending upon what's at the market mid week)
*Hamburgers (found a source of LOCAL GRASS FED BEEF!)on a dressed bun (tomato is also local) with new potatoes and cucumber salad
* Chicken Enchilladas, squash and zucchini, broccoli
*Pan Fried Tillapia, black beans and brown rice
*Leftover Buffet

We are also having guests for the weekend. I plan to roast two chickens. I'm going to leave one whole and we can have it as roasted chicken with side dishes. I am going to take the meat off the other chicken and dice it. Half will go into chicken salad and the other half will be mixed with BBQ sauce. These will stay in containers in the fridge for quick sandwiches.

On a side note, this weekend, I cooked up a pound of pintos in the crock pot. I love doing this - its sooooo easy - the beans soaked all day Saturday then I cooked them Saturday night. We made refried beans out of some of it and the rest was packaged in 1 cup portions for another week. I'm trying to do this every week or every other week with different kinds of beans to give us a variety ready to use. We currently have white beans, black beans, garbanzo beans and now pintos in the freezer. Yay! I'll probably have to cook more garbanzos this week as we'll use the last of it for hummus this week.

Blueberry Picking and Blueberry Popsicle Recipe

Today we went with some friends to a U-Pick Blueberry/ Blackberry farm. We had a blast picking berries and the farmer had this really cool machine to sort and bag the blueberries. The kids really enjoyed that as well.

We came home with a big bag of blueberries and another of blackberries. The blackberries are almost gone already, but the blueberries will take a little more time. We like them in stuff but don't eat them fresh. Here is something I'd like to do with some of them.

Juice Popsicle

The author of the above post uses lemon juice (which sounds wonderful), but I thought I'd substitute strained blueberry pulp. I'll post the results.