So, I’m hangin’ out at my parent’s house in WV this week. It is absolutely BEA-U-tiful here. The piece of property is naturally gorgeous but my parents have put a tremendous amount of TLC in here to make it the place it is. When I got here a few nights ago and opened the refrigerator, I found 3 gallons of blueberries. Yes, 3 GALLONS. They were beautiful, tasty blueberries.
Now I must tell you, I have blueberry bushes at home and haven’t gotten more than a handful of blueberries off of them. The birdies are much faster at getting to them than I am! So, I was highly impressed with the number of blueberries my parents were able to collect from 1 picking. I headed out to see what my dad had done to save the blueberries from the birds and saw this amazing concoction that he came up with.
He used PVC and this special netting made to keep birds out. He can just lift up the rocks or boards on the ground to get under the netting and can pick berries with out removing anything. He can then just take the netting down after the blueberries are done producing and save it for next year. He spent right around $50 for all the supplies.
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| Can you see the berries just hanging off this bush? |
Pretty Cool huh? Guess I know what my project will be when I get home!
We are enjoying these blueberries. A couple of nights ago we made Blueberry-Lemon Crumb Bars.
This is the recipe from AllRecipes.
Ingredients
- CRUST:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- FILLING:
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- CRUMB TOPPING:
- 5 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
- Start by making the crust. In a medium bowl, stir together the 2 cups flour, 2 tablespoons white sugar, lemon zest and salt. Cut in the 1/2 cup butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg and vanilla together; stir into the crumb mixture until a dough forms. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly.
- Sprinkle blueberries over the crust. Combine the 1/4 cup sugar and nutmeg; sprinkle over the blueberries. Make the topping: In a medium bowl, cream together the 5 tablespoons butter and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in the flour, so that the mixture is crumbly like streusel. Sprinkle over the blueberry layer.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until browned. Cool and then dust with confectioners’ sugar before cutting into bars.
They were delicious!!
Yummeeeeeeeee!!!!
That looks soo good! Thanks for sharing. : ) ~ Catie
http://catiescorner2.blogspot.com
Haha! What a clever man! Sadly fruit in the stores is SO SO SO expensive this summer! Usually by now we can get a quart of blueberries for 99 cents but now the cheapest I’ve seen is 2.49! This recipe could make me go out and buy some though — thanks for sharing it! It’s going in my recipe file!
I made this today for our 4th of July cookout — it is FANTASTIC! Planning to serve it up with a little whipped cream and garnish with some grated lemon peel! (I of course had to cut a piece out and taste to make sure it’s acceptable — haha!)
That looks great! The birds keep getting our family cherries! We need to build something soon or we are going to miss out on them again this summer.
I am visiting from the WFMW meme. Nice to “meet” you. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Blessings,
LaVonne @ Long Wait For Isabella
I am jealous of all those yummy blueberries he has! Those bars look so tasty! I wanted to invite you to come over and share your recipe at These Chicks Cooked Recipe Spotlight today. Have a great day 🙂
Katie
Love blueberries. Found you from the Raising Homemakers linkup. Would love for you to link up to Turning the Table Thursday (starts tonight at 9pm PST). Stumbled your post as well…hope you get some extra traffic. 😉
Wendy
Around My Family Table
We just went blueberry picking on Monday, but I canned them all as jam and syrup. We’ll have to go back and get more so I can try this recipe. 🙂
we have 40lbs of blueberries….this recipe looks yummo! trying today 🙂 your newest follower….come visit me if you’d like. 🙂
I sure would like to have the plans for your father’s bird netting cage. The birds got all but about 10 of my figs last year.
I also have blueberry bushes in my yard, and I did something very similar… I set it up tent style, and used ground cover stakes to prevent the birds from getting under the netting. I then wrapped a wooden ‘block’ in the netting where I wanted my ‘door’. My kids and I could get in to pick the blueberries, the rain could get through, and so can the pollinators, but the birds (and other animals that eat them) are stranded on the outside.
I’m not getting gallons of blueberries, yet, but these bushes were here when I rented the place, and the last owner didn’t take care of the bushes (or the yard! EVERYTHING is overgrown!) But as I prune and cut them back each winter, I notice more berries in the summer!