blueberries

so i recently went blueberry picking at black river organics!  i had never been before and i can't wait to go again next year.  michael and i woke up bright and early to beat the crowds as it's nearing the end of the season and it was just us and old couple for the first hour.  once it got to be around 1030 though, the place was filled!   we walked away with a little over 10lbs and then scooted off to the lakewood art's festival where we were sharing a booth.  get your cupcakes & messenger bags!  hey, it works.

after the long day finished we sorted our blueberries & made some jam!  admittedly neither of us really like blueberry jam, but we made some nonetheless.  we kept the majority of the berries frozen for later snacking.  for our jam recipe, we really try not to use any sort of thickening agents and just cooked it for a long time with a little bit of sugar.  the jam ended up being a bit thicker than we wanted, we were hoping for more of a syrup for pancakes, but i'm happy with the result.  i ended up using the jam as a garnish on these lovely blueberry cupcakes i sent off to the sweet spot the following friday :)

rhubarb muffins

 

these muffins are awesome! i made these for the lovely people at anthropologie opening day.  they were a hit and needless to say i went home without any leftovers.  i really shouldn't eat rhubarb because of my kidney stones but i will make an exception for delicious muffins like these.  i also love a good strawberry rhubarb pie!  last month i went on vacation in maine and i saw lots of strawberry rhubarb jam.  this will have to be a project for next spring.  i did manage to go strawberry picking the last week of the season and make around 20 cans of jam and freeze a quart of strawberries.  so i feel pretty good about that.  i really need to go blueberry picking though.  i got lazy when i got back from vacation and kept putting it off and last week when i tried to go the farm ended up switching the day of the week they are usually open and michael couldn't get off work.  blueberry picking, or any fruit picking is not something you can do solo.  well i guess you could, but it would take a long time.  so this week we tried to go again but of course, the farm decided to close for the week.  i guess that's how it works.  so no matter what, i will be going next week even if it means i have to visit a different farm than i want to.  i also haven't gone peach picking but honestly i still have peaches leftover from last year.  i just don't use them that often.  i'm hoping to just buy a bunch from woolf farm and take the easy route on that one.

but back to the muffins.. i found this recipe from surprise!  smitten kitchen.  you can find the link to the recipe here.  i made mini muffins so they would go further at the store, but i think a giant muffin would be nice too.  i also left the topping off of half the muffins and they were just as good without the streusel.  so if you're trying to make them a bit lighter, just skip the streusel and maybe put some strawberry jam on them right out of the oven.  that sounds delicious.

as a last note, if you haven't checked out my website yet you should.

rosygirlbakedgoods.com