No, this was
not a marathon performance of “Blueberry Hill” but a 12-hour farm-to-kitchen
event.
I rise early
on a Sunday morning before the heat becomes intense. It is the day of my
annual, ritualistic hunt for Long Island blueberries. This year, I’ve got a new
twist in mind. I tune the car radio to
“Sunday Baroque” and drive East to the North Fork of Long Island. I park at
Patty’s Berries & Bunches in Mattituck and purchase four containers to
fill. Conditions should be perfect as Patty’s online “Berry Chart” depicts a
little bumblebee buzzing towards “bountiful picking.”
The
blueberry patch is almost deserted, save for a young family with two children
who have embraced the adventure completely.
Young Evan hollers, “Dad, I found a BIG one,” or “I picked a
WINNER!” His father must sternly
caution Evan not to run, for fear of spilling his prized berries on the ground.
Beyond
Evan’s enthusiastic shouts, there is nothing but the sound of a warm breeze, a
passing automobile and the buzz of a few bees.
I get to work, and in due time, I’ve filled four containers.
The gentle
rhythm of picking is so pleasing, that I go back and purchase two more
containers to fill. One can never have
too many blueberries for baking. The
blueberries are plump and sweet. Some
are an inky blue-black hue.
Two hours
later, I’m back in my car and heading for home. Returning to the kitchen, the jam session
begins. I think my fascination with
blueberries likely began with family camping trips to Acadia National Park in
Maine. We would pick wild blueberries on
the mountain trails and sprinkle them on our cereal in the morning. Cooking up a batch of jam is one way to
preserve that summertime flavor, and I’m determined to keep my new home preserving skills in good working order.
The recipe
for blueberry jam is easier than blueberry pie, and takes about 10 minutes to
prepare. Several options for recipes can
be accessed here. The ingredients are
simply blueberries, lemon juice, liquid pectin and sugar – lots of it!
The first
action is to clean and crush the blueberries to start to release the juices. It
is a little painful to squash blueberries that just hours before, one selected
and plucked so carefully, but that rich purple juice is immediately evident. Then comes the addition of the sugar – seven
cups! As my friend Lydia points out as
I keep her abreast of the project online, that’s just about a cup of sugar per
jar of jam! Well, no one said jam was
diet food.
With the
addition of lemon juice, the mixture is heated until it begins to boil. It looks like an exotic vat of bubbling
violet soup cooked up by Oompa-Loompas.
Here, liquid pectin is added to thicken the jam and make it set.
There is a
learning curve. The recipe suggests that
after boiling for a minute, you take the mixture off the heat and skim the foam
off the top. Here I find that I’m
actually skimming off a lot of tasty blueberry skins in the process that would
add chunkiness to the jam. I’ll have to
work on my skimming technique.
Most of the
time invested in home preserving goes to preparing the jars and the
cleanup. Filling the hot jars with hot
jam is quickly done, and the covered jars go into a boiling water bath. A gentle steam swirls through the kitchen,
I’ve got iTunes playing and I’m jamming!
After ten
minutes, the jars are removed to cool.
Within minutes, I hear a sharp popping, as the vacuum seal takes effect
on each jar.
The
remaining blueberries are frozen, because I can’t let the summer pass without
baking my favorite lemon blueberry Bundt cake.
When the
jars are completely cool, all that’s needed is a finishing touch – a specially
designed label commemorating a dreamy summer day gathering and preserving the
best of blueberries grown on Long Island’s North Fork.
©2013 T.W.
Barritt All Rights Reserved
