The Noble Blueberry

Each region has its own glorious summer fruit: Georgia peaches, Hawaiian pineapple, Michigan cherries (thank you Ann Patchett for glorifying this humble fruit!), Florida oranges and grapefruits - but nothing compares to blueberries! They are the simplest of fruits, no peeling, no dicing, no need for spices or sugar. They are perfection straight from the blueberry bush. If you can avoid sharing with the deer you will have an abundance of sweet, juicy deliciousness all summer long.

We enjoy picking blueberries and using them in pie, muffins, or straight up in a bowl with a sprinkle of granola. The very best NH breakfast! Today I made a blueberry pie with fresh berries from our local farm, Riverview Farms. It took a few years to find a recipe that would hold the berries together in a pie, without the filling becoming soup. But the trick, it seems, is using a combination of cornstarch and flour (1/4 cup each) into the filling and letting the pie completely cool before cutting. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this one holds up, since we are bringing it to our dear friends in northern Vermont - where we have been invited to share a long weekend aside a crystal clear lake and good friends.

Local eating has become a ‘thing’, and a good thing. But we in New England have long held to that tradition. Our ancestors carved out root cellars in their basements and stored the fall harvest (apples, turnips, onions) in the cool for use all winter long. Strawberries in December? Unheard of! We now have the opportunity to purchase any fruit or vegetable, no matter the time of year - but often with a huge carbon footprint.

We try to abide by local seasonal eating. Corn is now abundant, and delicious. So is most everything - a smorgasbord of freshness at our finger tips. Our summers are short and wildly beautiful. The lushness of greenery fills the senses, and the birds are in high spirits. One of my favorite perches is a little covered porch off of the kitchen. A cup of coffee in the early morning and a quiet meditation on the birdsong sets the day right, especially sitting under the watchful eye of Saint Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners.

With a few extra blueberries after finishing the pie, I opted to make some muffins. But no ordinary muffins - this recipe was coaxed out of a chef in Oxford, Mississippi a couple of years ago. After browsing ‘Square Books’ for several hours we wandered over to “City Grocery” for dinner with friends who were visiting the city with us. The meal was extraordinary, but the cornbread was especially wonderful! It has a bite (cayenne) and a load of butter…. But that’s what makes it extraordinary. I threw in a few blueberries and I think it’s a winner. We will return to Mississippi this fall, this time to Jackson, and I look forward to expanding my (admittedly picky) culinary horizons. The days of lard induced indigestion have, hopefully passed. Here is the recipe, with notes to reduce the amounts. I particularly loved the directions to “whisk the eggs in a pickle barrel”. Huh? It reminds me of a neighbor in California many years ago who gave me her recipe for matzo ball soup. Her hand written directions called for scooping a few spoonfuls of chicken fat into the matzo meal. Where, I asked, did one find chicken fat? The can in your refrigerator she responded, astonished that I would need to ask. Okay-dokey… we all have our cultural touchstones when it comes to food.