Thursday, July 23, 2009

Blueberries: In the Hand and On the Brain

Last week we took the kids to pick blueberries at Larriland Farm.


The picking was considered "fair". That's because, when the pickin' is "good", the berries fall from the bush in large ripe clusters right into your hand with little to no effort. We actually had to hunt and pick them...


There were still plenty of great blueberries to be found and we had a great time picking, eating and getting lost amidst the bushes.


Then, thinking we were lost, calling out -- only to find out that everyone was only a bush or two away. It's also a great place to eavesdrop since it's very easy to hide in a blueberry field...


Not that we did any eavesdropping or snickering or giggling about it, no way, not us...

By the time we were finished, the day had gotten pretty hot...


But leave it up to the kids to find water. They were amazed by the size of the super giant sprinkler that was watering the pumpkin patch so they had to run through it...


After we got home, I was very inspired by our berry harvest so I tried a blueberry cake recipe from Apples for Jam...But, I didn't like it...


It looks pretty but it was too cake-y for me ( in this pic, I'd already cut away the bottom half of the cake). Turns out, I like the berries the best. The more berries the better. So instead, I've taken to eating them directly from the freezer.


They're like tiny blueberry popsicles which are a delight for the mouth on hot, July day.

The beautiful colors of the berries got me thinking again about how you might interpret them into needlework.


I went hunting for examples and found that there really weren't that many that I could find -- there were lots of examples of strawberries and raspberries, but blueberries in the needlearts seemed to be slim-pickin'.

Jane Nicholas interpreted blueberries into stumpwork by stitching detached buttonhole stitches around a small wooden bead...top right under the butterfly.


Of the few examples I found, my favorite, by far, was this interpretation in canvas by Needle Delights called Blueberry Torte -- it's the fourth design in the Edibles Collection. Cherry Cordial is just as yummy!


And lastly, I found lots of blueberries fashioned with felt but these by Ann at Harvest Moon by Hand were my favorite...


This ends my blueberry tour for now.

May the Blueberry of Happiness shine down upon you and be gracious to you, and may you have the chance to hold Happiness in the palm of your hand...

15 comments:

allie aller said...

As sweet and delicious as blueberry pie, your post!

Kathy said...

Nice pictorial.
Judging by the shape of the leaves and the fact that they are red, though, I'm fairly sure the "blueberries" you cite in Jane Nicolas' work are actually red currants.

Susan Elliott said...

Oh, KatyDidde, I can see why you might think that because the blueberries are harder to see!! Look above the red currants and directly under the feet of the butterfly...they are very dark blue and bigger than the currants...

Ati said...

I had to smile, my day also was filled with berries.
But you can make a poetry from a common activity :)
I only had a hurting back when finished! ( see my blog)

Anonymous said...

i did not realise blueberry bushes were so big! i planted one and it never got higher than about 6 inches, produced one berry and promptly died. i buy the occasional punnet of blueberries to eat fresh as a Christmas treat here - Id never 'waste' them in a cake!

Trouvais said...

Oh! I love those felt blueberries!!! I posted yesterday about a gold mesh ribbon rose necklace ...I'm counting on your book recommendations to help me duplicate that!

Harvest Moon by Hand said...

Enjoyed looking at all the wonderful images of blueberries and blueberry-inspired artwork. Thanks for including my felt blueberries in your article!

Sheila said...

Reminded me of Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey! Happy felting!

Sheila said...

Thank you for the link to Jane Nichols Stumpwork - Wow! What a great resource - Her ode to the 17th century is amazing! :)

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Thank you Susan for bringing back to mind a wonderful time of life when Laurie was little and we picked every fruit that was available. I didn't work then, and canned and made jams and jellys all summer. Boy did I bake. We especially liked picking blueberries,which came on just after strawberries. One thing I loved to do was to bake blueberry cheesecake (yes the baked version) during a snowstorm. It was always at least a once a year event.

Funny how one memory leads to another...just like stepping stones.

Have a wonderful weekend.

XX, Carol

Ingrid Mida said...

Your photos are really beautiful - very professional looking. I like my blueberries plain too. Have a wonderful weekend.

Unknown said...

Oh, I LOVE blueberries! Those are some awesome photos and it looks like a wonderful day you had with your family to go pick some!

jessi said...

Beautiful photos - makes me want to go blueberry picking myself! :)

pam T said...

OMG Susan, what a wonderful post! and those bushes of the beautiful berry! up here, our blueberry bushes are about 1 foot off the ground so you don't pick as much unless you are willing to crawl on your hands and knees or get a back ache!!! I'm with you, no messing around with baking with them, just stuff the mouth full of the bursting goodness!!!!

Wanda said...

Beautiful pictures and great post, Susan...as always. I went raspberry picking on one of my bicycle rides. I had seen that the raspberries were all over the place as I rode by so one day I took a container. Well, now I know why the berries were not already picked....bugs and mold!!!! I tried to pick the good ones but I was so grossed out after about 20 minutes that I doubt I'll be eating any raspberries now for years to come!

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