The Last of the Blueberries

This is the time of summer when I spend a lot of time wondering (worrying, even) if every handful of fresh blueberries I eat will be my last for the year. Right now, at a time when both back-to-school and cooking-class-season are looming, “the end of the fresh blueberries” is seriously one of the main things on my mind.

What can I say? Fresh blueberries are my favourite fruit, and possibly my favourite food. I absolutely love their taste and texture. I love way the taut skin pops in my mouth to reveal sweet and succulent blueberry-ness. I love their dark purple complexity of flavour.

This would explain why, earlier this summer, I ordered 110 pounds of fresh local bluberries. I froze most of them, but I kept 25 pounds to eat fresh. It took me 9 days. (Do I win an award for breaking the blueberry-eating barrier?) Then I bought another 10 pound box of fresh blues, and another, and another… Still, I never get sick of them. After six weeks of unbridled blueberry face-stuffing, I still feel wistful as the season comes to a close.

This is possibly a medical condition. My attempt at a cure is to try every summer to eat so many fresh blueberries that I will be sick of them by September and ready to wait a whole year. But that never happens! Even after this record-breaking blueberry summer,  I can’t get enough of their texture: that crispy explosion in my mouth! (If you have never before had a blueberry that is taut and crispy, it’s time to start buying direct from the farm.)

Luckily, I have 85 pounds of them in my deep freeze to hold me over (barely) until next July. Frozen blues don’t have the right texture, but they’ll do. Maybe in my next life, I’ll marry a blueberry farmer.

P.S. If you are wondering how I manage to eat over 2 pounds of blueberries every day, let me explain. Breakfast: I make it more blueberries than oatmeal, or than muesli, than yogurt, than pancakes, than (insert favourite breakfast item here). In the car: a pint of blueberries at all times to snack on. Snacks: a cup of fresh blueberries, maybe with some yogurt; or maybe a blueberry smoothie or blueberry popsicle. Lunch: ok maybe not, but a handful of blues is never out of place after a salmon sandwich. Dinner: again, it’s more about the post-dinner palate-refresher. Also, dessert: more blueberries than ice cream, more blueberries than cake, etc etc.
And, before bed, brush your teeth with crushed blueberries! ;-)