Preserving the Blues

by DoItYourself Staff

If you want to capture summer, pick a blueberry. The plump, round juicy globe symbolizes the best of the warm season: twilight suppers on the patio...sunny breakfasts at the lake...crickets chirping...the scent of fresh-mown lawns.

Wild blueberries have been a cherished part of our heritage since the nation's earliest years. But it wasn't until the 1930s that the cultivated blueberry business began to come alive. Today, North American blueberries account for 95 percent of the world's harvest. Millions of pounds are harvested each year, making it second only to the strawberry among North American berry crops.

How to Pick the Best

When shopping for blueberries at market, choose the ones that appear plump, unwrinkled and free of leaves and stems. Keep in mind that the bigger the berry, the sweeter it will be. Of course, for some palates, that doesn't mean the flavor is necessarily better. Part of the appeal of any berry is its tartness.

Blueberries are delicate. When you get them home, examine your treasure carefully and remove squashed, diseased or moldy berries. Refrain from washing your berries until you're ready to use them; otherwise they will spoil quickly.

Saving Summer for Winter

Freezing blueberries is a breeze. Sort them, spread them on cookie sheets and pop them in the freezer. Once hard, you can transfer them to freezer containers for long-term storage. There is no need to wash the berries before freezing. Rinse them just before you use them to thaw and clean them at the same time.

Canning blueberries gives you fresh berry flavor right off the shelf. You can choose either the hot pack or raw pack method. With the hot pack method, precooking the berries makes them more pliable, permits a tighter pack and requires fewer jars for processing. With the raw pack method, fresh berries are packed into hot jars an covered with a hot syrup before processing.

Many discriminating cooks believe that the tart flavor of dried blueberries makes for better breads and muffins than the frozen or canned variety. A commercial or homemade electric dehydrator provides the most reliable and energy-efficient results.

Of course, there's nothing more American than blueberry pie. The Ball Blue Book® Guide to Home Canning, Freezing and Dehydration features an easy-to-prepare pie filling recipe for the freezer. It combines blueberries, cornstarch, sugar and flavorings. When you're ready for the flavor of fresh blueberry pie in the middle of winter, you can thaw the pie filling, pour it into your favorite pie shell recipe and bake.

Considering all the options, it doesn't make sense to limit the enjoyment of blueberries to late summer. With a little planning now, you can have the blues all year.