blueberries!

It’s blueberry season. We have wonderful blueberry farms all around us here. Yesterday hubby went to find some for family in Kelowna, who have put in an order, and whom we go to visit today. He came across a farm fruit stand about 10 minutes’ drive away selling fat luscious berries (for $1.60 a pound - yes!).

When we get back from our few days away, I will send him out to buy berries for us. My favorite way to preserve them is to freeze them. It’s easy. All you do is wash the berries, drain as well as you can, then spread them in one layer on cookie sheets to freeze. When they’re frozen, dump them in ice-cream buckets or some such large container (and replace in the freezer of course). This way they are loose (not frozen in a clump) and you can scoop out a cup-full or two any time during the winter to add to muffins, fruit salad – or to snack on, like candy popsicles. Yum!

One of my favorite ways to use blueberries – or any fresh, frozen or canned fruit, for that matter – is to put them in Fruit Platz.

Fruit Platz*

Layer 1 - the crust
½ cup shortening
1 ½ cup flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup cream
Mix shortening and dry ingredients together. Add liquid. Place in bottom of 8 x 12 inch pan.

Layer 2 - the filling
Spread fresh, canned or frozen fruit** of your choice over the crust. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1½ teaspoon cinnamon

Layer 3 - the topping
½ cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
Blend to form crumbs and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Sprinkle over fruit.

Bake at 375 F. for 45 minutes.

Serve warm with ice-cream.

* From the recipe book Are There Meals After Marriage? put out by the Circle Drive Alliance Church Young Couples Group - 1981.
** How much fruit? The recipe doesn’t say. I think it usually takes 2-3 cups to make it nice and fruity.