Nearing the end of July, I go out to pick blueberries in the front yard. It is not hot yet, but so humid that my glasses fog up immediately. Within minutes I am pouring sweat. Not my favorite time of year here in the South, but I have muffins to bake.
As I pick, memories flood back of summers spent in New Hampshire. First with Aunt Mary and Uncle Len; I would go with her to a U Pick place and we would pick enough blueberries for pies and muffins. For me this was an exotic trip as we had no such thing back home in Atlanta. Those were some good memories with Aunt Mary and she sent me a lovely book after Eamon was born called “Blueberries for Sal" which became standard bedtime reading for both he and Olivia. Later I would come back as a camp counselor at Camp Merrowvista. So many great memories of that place from the three summers I spent there. The younger campers looked forward with anticipation to hiking to the rocky ledges of a nearby mountain and picking blueberries from the scrubby bushes that grew there. Though some were , of course, eaten on the spot, we saved most for the blueberry ice cream we would make that night. Each tent group had one night a week scheduled for this. After dinner several campers would go off to the kitchen to retrieve the old fashioned crank ice cream maker, salt, ice and vanilla mix. With many hands to crank the churn, we added the blueberries and in almost no time had a delicious dessert! I can almost taste it! The ice cream never reached a complete freeze but it was sticky, sloppy fun and the everpresent mosquitoes loved us afterward. It was a camp tradition, and as the campers grew older and spent most of their time gone on strenuous trips, it was always something to look forward to and rarely skipped, even by the oldest girls.
We have five blueberry bushes in our yard and they are full of ripening berries. I have a new recipe for muffins that calls for sour cream. It is Kevin approved and I'm sure the kids will like it too. Despite the heat and sweat, I enjoyed this morning's picking and the memories it brought back.
