Summer To Do List: Pick Fruit

So I've made myself a To Do list for the summer. Some of it is businessy (build a website - yuck) but most of it is fun. While in Atlanta I got to cross off something from my list - picking fruit.

About a 45 minute drive outside of Atlanta is Foxbrier Farm where you can go to pick some Boe Berries. Giant plywood signs with the word Blueberry followed by a giant blue dot is the only clue you will see once you get back on the winding road to the farm.

We pulled up to the house and knocked on the door. Nothing. Is anyone home? Maybe we should have called first. We scrounge around facebook looking for a phone number while arguing about whether its Boe Berry or Boe's Berries or Boe Berries. A woman answers the phone and assures us we are in the right place. "Do you see any buckets?" she asks over the phone. Sitting on the porch were two green plastic buckets. "Ok, take those buckets and go pick berries" she said. So we did.

We found it rather odd that there was no one there to check us in or direct us to the berries but we had no problem finding our way. Armed with buckets we set out to pick the bushes clean.

It turns out that picking blueberries is hard work. There are beetles that buzz angrily at you, bees that follow you and a nasty patch of fire ants gave us all itchy souvenirs to take home. By the end of it our buckets were pretty close to full - even despite Daphne eating more than half of what she picked.

As we sprinted away from the ants and back to the house a tired looking tye-dye clad dude tumbled out of the house and said we owed him about $12. Twelve bucks! We had so many berries that we ate them throughout the weekend. Then we divided them up and Daphne and I took some home, which I literally just finished yesterday.

I kid you not these berries were the best I've had all season. Plump, firm and just slightly tart. If nothing else, picking fruit made me appreciate the food much more as I ate them and simultaneously scratched my bug bites.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins - revisited

For those of you who are regular readers you are probably thinking its time for me to close up shop and move on with my life. Wait...she's doing lemon blueberry muffins again? Didn't she just do those like 2 weeks ago. Yes, but wait! These are different I promise. Here is why. First...




I got this lovely little antique citrus juicer! I used one of these in France and kinda fell in love with it and decided my life would not be complete until I had one of my own.



Another reason these muffins are different is because this time I decided to go vegan. And for those of you who are about to poo poo this - taste testers (ie the boys I live with who don't have a preference between vegan and non-vegan muffins) have confirmed that the vegan ones are better.



The basic base for these muffins came from the book Vegan Yum Yum, but she made Lemon Cranberry Muffins. Which would have been cool too but I had blueberries. This is the first recipe from her book that I have tried (even though I tweaked several thinks) and now I can't wait to try more!


Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins (12 muffins)

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
the zest from 1 lemon
1 cup plain soy milk
the juice from 1 lemon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 small carton blueberries, rinsed and dried
1 tbsp raw sugar



1. Preheat the oven to 400 F and line your muffin tin with paper liners or grease them.
2. In a large bowl mix together your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, cornstarch, and lemon zest.
3. In a 2 cup liquid measuring cup mix together the soy milk, vegetable oil, vanilla, almond, and lemon juice.
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until almost combined.
5. Toss the blueberries in a bowl with the raw sugar, then add them to the batter and mix everything together until its just combined.
6. Fill the muffin tins. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Using a knife, pop each muffin out of its tin and either place it on a rack to cool or turn the muffins slightly sideways in the tin to prevent soggy bottoms.

Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

YAY! Muffins! I am experiencing the simultaneous joy and frustration of finding my kitchen supplies in my Dad's basement. But where is that darn food processor, agh! Sorry...

I stumbled upon my muffin tins while I was looking for a few things and thought - hey, I haven't had a muffin in a long time. Voila - muffins were made. This is a recipe I got from Cooking Light but I altered it a bit to make it dairy free. Also you will notice that I use whole wheat white flour - this will give it that wheaty taste (so don't expect the sugar loaded, starchy tasting muffins we all begged our mom for in the grocery store bakery...no one else wanted those? you all wanted the donuts didn't you?!) But! Because its white wheat (still whole wheat - no worries) it has less of a pronounced taste. If you want to use all-purpose flour of course you can - but these are muffins not cupcakes so why not make them a little healthier and save the all purpose for the cakes?



Lemon Blueberry Muffins
(makes 12)
2 cups whole wheat white flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegan butter spread
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy buttermilk (almost 1 1/4 cups vanilla soymilk plus the juice of one small lemon)
1 large egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 cup fresh blueberries, washed
raw sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a bowl. Next cut in the vegan butter spread. You can use a pastry blender for this or two knives, or my go to - your hands (its fun and fast!), until you have a mixture that resembles a coarse meal.
3. Combine the buttermilk, lemon rind, and eggs - mix well. Add in the flour mixture a bit at a time until its all mixed in, but be carfeul not to overwork it.
4. Toss the blueberries with a little bit of flour (this will keep them from sinking to the bottom right away) and then gently fold them into the mixture.
5. Spoon the batter into 12 pre-buttered muffin cups. Bak for about 20 minutes or until the muffins are golden and spring back when touched. Remove the muffins from the pans and cool on a rack.