When I was growing up, we didn’t have air conditioning. Actually, to this very day, my parents refuse to put an air conditioner in their home for fear of the power bill going through the roof! During this time of the year, we would rarely cook anything in the house. Most days would be either something cooked on the grill or most regretfully… some kind of cold cut sandwich.
The sad part is this time of the year, in this part of the country, is when everything is in season. This is the time of the year for berries!! Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, you name it, it is in season.
Anderson Chef Jason CobbAs a child we had blackberry bushes just down the street from my parents’ house, and near my grandparents’ home, there were wild blueberry bushes (some call them huckleberries), which we would go pick around the first of July. These small bushes filled with delicious berries grow in the underbrush along the side of the road.
To this day, I enjoy going to pick wild berries. Even as a child, one of the few things I looked forward to was when mom would, even without air conditioning, wait until it had begun to cool off at night and she would make homemade blueberry muffins. There is something quite different about using fresh picked berries to make muffins, especially those made with those minute berries grown in the wild. If you can’t get your hands on wild berries for lack of availability, go to a local U-Pick berry farm and pick some berries of your own for this project. Please don’t go to your local supermarket and get berries from some unknown location. Trust me…. The difference is noticeable.