Week of July 26, 2020

It is BLUEBERRY time at TAProots farm.  The mild spring allowed a heavy bloom on the blueberry bushes, followed by a very dry June and hot weather with showers in July.  This, along with weed control and some organic fertilizer, lead to a heavy crop of blueberries this season.  The seven rows are planted for sequential ripening but the hot weather brought almost everything to harvest.  Some berries were very small due to the drought, but others weighted down the mature bushes with unripened fruit.  We picked many quarts for our neighbors, blueberry pancakes, and Joyce’s blueberry pie, all in the first weeks here.  Something we didn’t have in previous years was enough fruit for jam.  Not this year!  I made one batch of blueberry freezer jam to see what that is like, but the real target is cooked blueberry jam that can return with us to Florida.   Each batch needs two quarts of berries so jam-making will continue as long as the berries holdup.  Picking needs to be done every day or so, since birds also love blueberries.  As the season progresses, it’s us against the birds!