Blueberry season is currently in full swing here in my home state of Michigan and each year I always try to go “pick my own” so I can then make my own blueberry goodies. At the time of this writing, the price for a u-pick pound of blueberries was $1.25 so it’s definitely a frugal option for us too.

And I always try to bring a few helpers along with me. Even the little ones can help. I have them pick the low ones, and I pick the high ones! But the more helpers you have, the more blueberries you have, and that left me figuring out what to do with the 4 pounds of freshly picked blueberries we ended up with.

Freezing Freshly Picked Blueberries

The first thing I usually do is freeze some of the blueberries. Now maybe you already know this trick, but I only learned it a few years ago. I used to dump the blueberries straight into bags or containers – BUT – when taking them out of the freezer they were sometimes all frozen together in one big lump if they had been a little moist yet from rinsing them when they went in the freezer.

I’ve since learned a better way. Now, I always spread them out on a sheet pan, and then put the sheet pan into the freezer. This allows each blueberry to freeze individually. After an hour or so I take the sheet pan of the now frozen blueberries back out of the freezer and then put them into bags or containers. This is so helpful if I want to measure out just a few of the blueberries from the freezer for a recipe later on instead of having to thaw the entire bag or container of the blueberries.

Next up, Blueberry Muffins!

Any time we pick blueberries, one of my favorite things to make is blueberry muffins. For many years I’ve used a recipe that includes orange juice in the batter, something I don’t see too often in other blueberry muffin recipes. If I substitute the egg in this recipe with my flax egg replacement (which I often do), it can be an oil-free and animal product-free recipe too.

I wrote about this recipe once before on my post about turning your own recipes into make-ahead mixes, but thought I would give you the entire recipe here too:

We’ll Be Making Blueberry Pancakes Too

Also on the menu at our house this week will be some blueberry pancakes. I’ll be using my Homemade Whole Grain Pancake Mix and this should be a quick and easy meal! I’ll probably be making a quick batch of my simple blueberry syrup topping to go with them too.

And Then He Talked Me Into Pie

I haven’t been making many sweet treats at our house anymore and I’ve been trying to focus more on whole foods and healthy vegetables and fruits (like blueberries!). But Bob kept going past the big bowl of blueberries and mournfully asking, “Will there be pie??”

So I finally relented and made him his own mini-sized blueberry pie. For this little pie I used a recipe that’s already here on my blog, but it’s kind of hidden away in a very old post about a push-in pie crust.

I didn’t use the push-in pie crust method this time around however. I just made a quick little crust using what I had on hand. I used a 1/2 cup of flour, 2 Tbl of plant-based “butter”, a pinch of salt, and a couple tablespoons of water. Once it was rolled and in my mini 6″ glass pie pan, I pricked the bottom of the crust with a fork and baked it for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Then it was ready to be filled with the blueberry pie filling! I made a half size batch of the recipe below:

Lots of Blueberry Goodness!

So those are a few of the homemade ways that we put our frugal pick-your-own blueberries to good use. I’ll also be using some in my smoothies using my homemade smoothie system that’s an easy way for me to combine any fruits I have around the house.

And of course, blueberries are a yummy snack to just eat by the handful! I’ve been leaving a little bowl of blueberries out on the kitchen counter to encourage myself to enjoy this healthy snack any time of the day. Every time I have a few to munch on I’m reminded that freshly picked blueberries are indeed one of nature’s delicious sweet treats!