Seeing Blue

     We’ve been seeing lots of blue around Voyageur lately; the sky, the lakes and more importantly blueberries.  I can honestly say I have never had a Voyageur Crew as obsessed with blueberries as this year’s.  In fact, I can barely think of past crew members that even enjoyed picking them.  Maybe this year’s crew doesn’t even enjoy picking them, maybe they did at first, but I think it has crossed the line from enjoyment to an obsession.

     The word obsession may be a little bit harsh but I haven’t ever seen as many blueberries picked as this year.  Adam, aka Bluebeard can pick six gallon bags full in less than an hour!  I’m not sure how fast Ian or Irwin are but I bet they are close.  I feel like a loser when I come back to the truck with less than a gallon in the same amount of time.  It isn’t so much the fact they are picking the blueberries it’s what they are doing with them afterwards.

     One day I walked into the kitchen to find Adam up to his elbows in blueberries, literally.  He was squishing them with his hands before spreading them out onto a pan to dry into fruit leather.  This was after I asked him not to use my brand new blender and major kilowatts of electricity.  I walked into the kitchen after listening to the blender for over an hour from him zapping and blending the berries into a fine puree before pouring them onto the pans.  Before long every one of my sheet pans was covered in blue and sitting outside in the sunshine.  Once the earth around Voyageur was covered in blue the pilot lights in my ovens became dryers too.  Unfortunately I didn’t always realize there were berries in the oven before cranking the heat up to bake something, oops.

     I’m guessing this blue frenzy will be over very soon.  I can’t imagine there are many more blueberries out there to be picked.  If there are then I know who will be out there, unless they’re too busy looking for wild rice.