Humid Blue

I love blueberries. I love blueberry jam, blueberry soft drinks, and blueberry pancakes.

I am extremely fortunate that my parents' yard borders a wooded area covered in blueberry bushes. It's a really beautiful area, green and lush, with pine, fir, and birch trees. I really enjoyed being outdoors and rifling through undergrowth in search for yummy.

What I didn't enjoy was the 32 C temperature and 81% humidity this day had to offer, but I sure enjoyed it more than my dad and Boy did. They were replacing broken roof tiles. Black concrete roof tiles.

Now, to get wild blueberries, there are a few steps you need to take in order to get the yummy berries.

First, spend an hour looking for a bucket and a berry picker in your parents' garage and/or shed. This is very important. Without the heightened level of frustration, you cannot possibly hope to appreciate the humidity and heat once you get out of the cool garage.

Secondly, make sure the cat didn't sneak into the garage. If she did, count on spending another 30 minutes trying to get the stubborn animal out. Cats are smart animals, so don't count on her volunteering to leave the coolness of the garage for the OHSWEETPOPESONAPOGOSTICK heat of Outside. Luckily, I didn't have to wrestle a cat today.

Thirdly, ANTS! WHAT IS THE POINT OF ANTS!?

Fourth, sorting out all the debris from the berries. Thankfully, this can be done anywhere with air conditioning.

And finally, find a jar to store the berries in until you want to use them. All berries can be frozen until they're used, unless you want fresh looking berries. I have never succeeded in getting frozen berries to look like anything except a Rorschach test.

Yummy yummy berries.

I bought sugar on the way home, and I also found lemons and rhubarbs, so while I was waiting for the blueberries to boil, I made Ice Tea fixings.

This juice is stupidly simple and so great for iced tea. 

All you need is 

1 sliced lemon

1 cup sliced rhubarbs

1 tbsp sugar

1 liter water

Mix everything and let sit in the fridge for 2 days. Enjoy.

Anyone who's ever known me knows of my previous kitchen failures, such as the Charcoal Eggs Adventure or IDon'tThinkIt'sSupposedToLookLikeThis custard, so it should come as no surprice that I managed to almost burn my hand off before realizing that melting sugar plus exploding berries make for a potentially harmful situation. In the end, though, I managed to make two liters of glorious blueberry jam.

...that somehow look like brown beans. O.o

DFTBA