A couple of weeks ago we headed down the road to a nearby farm for our annual harvesting of peaches and blackberries, we added blueberries as well this year for good measure...
It was one of those amazingly beautiful days that comes after a string of hot and humid ones.
One of those days where you can't quite believe the color of the sky.
One of those days where you can't help but exclaim out loud how beautiful it is!
It was one of those days where no one complained. One where we spent our morning chatting...
and picking...
and munching on sun warmed fruit...
One of those mornings where I felt so lucky to be able to spend the summer with these kids! One where I totally appreciated that they totally appreciate "Mama Camp" and that they enjoy little things like the amazing flavor of a fresh picked blueberry...
I'm so happy that I am able to take these two along on fun little adventures. I am happy and proud that they enjoy being outside and that they realize the importance of nature...
animals...
and getting dirty...
It was one of those days where I realized that those simple joys that my mom instilled in me are now being passed along another generation...I feel fairly confident that the best part of their summers and days are not related to something electronic but related instead to outdoor adventuring (if you haven't seen this Nature Valley advertisement, you should, it's eye opening!)...
And then, we finished walking through three fields and finished picking...
And suddenly we had A LOT of fruit, 23 pounds of peaches and many, many blackberries and blueberries! So, what's a girl to do with that much fruit. Eating it fresh is surely one of my favorite ways, but when you've got as much as we had there is no way you can simply just eat it all before it spoils.
So we set out to use it all up in one way or the other...
There was blueberry pie (from Ina Garten's Make it Ahead cookbook that I got out of the library, this is a fantastic cookbook with so many yummy recipes!), blackberry (and strawberry another day) corncakes, with blackberry syrup, peach-vanilla cream pops, one of my all time favorites - blackberry pie, another favorite, peach pie (a family recipe), blackberry gelato and then we've frozen some blackberries, canned some peaches (I am no longer afraid of canning!), made ricotta peach basil and balsamic pizza, and blueberry muffins (with a lemonade stand!) Other favorite recipes from the past...blueberry pudding cake, which we are putting on our to make list, and Nectarine Cobbler.
I am happy to say that we've enjoyed these fruits to their fullest, have some tucked away for the winter and didn't waste an ounce of them to spoiling!
Of course, we also went strawberry picking earlier this summer and again we had a tremendous amount of fruit to deal with before it spoiled. Especially this year as the strawberries were quite soft due to an excessive amount of rain this season...
So far we've enjoyed strawberry pie (another well loved family recipe!), strawberry jam (I think my best batch yet!), jam blondies (we sold these at our lemonade stand as well) with our strawberry jam, strawberry ice cream, and strawberry muffins (sans butter), plus loads are tucked away in the freezer for cold winter days...
Oh, the picking of fruit is fun! Sometimes the storing and eating before it spoils though can be a bit stressful! Now, though, I think I've begun to get the hang of it a bit...Now that the last of our blackberries and peaches have been eaten I am almost contemplating going back to the farm for more!
Happy Summer days to you!
10 of Our Favorite Summer Fruit Recipes...
