July 19th, 2010    Simple Simon

Simon would have liked to visit our home today, as the house filled with the delightful aroma of Rebecca cooking up one of her specialties -- a sour-cream blueberry pie.

Picking blueberries has become a summer tradition, as two wonderful people (who also happen to be the former owners of Sweetwater) own a tremendous organic blueberry patch, and invite people up every year to pick.

We managed to fill half of a 5-gallon bucket with berries. I spent most of my time watching for bears (frequent visitors to the patch), hoping that we'd get to meet the rather large one that our host caught on his woods-cam earlier in the year. There were some promising sounds in the distant woods, but no ursine appearance.

We were also treated to a sudden rainstorm that sent all the other pickers (excepting our host) to their cars. As the raindrops tickled our noses and soaked our shirts, we popped blueberries into our mouths, enjoying the contrast of the sun-warmed and rain-coated flavour.

Now we're eating blueberries constantly, resulting in some rather dark-hued poo and hopefully-healthy antioxidant overdoses. There are blueberry pancakes, plenty of raw blueberries, blueberry pies, and all of the extra abundance is going into the freezer. Last year we got really gourmet and did salmon in a blueberry reduction sauce, but this year we're feeling lazier.

You're doubtless enjoying your own favorite summertime fruits or vegetables, perhaps straight from the garden. Let us know if you have any must-make recipes!