Don't you love the blue hue in Maine right now?

Blueberry season is much anticipated at our house. We pick at least 20 pounds of blueberries every year to freeze. Frozen blueberries (L. calls them round popsicles) are a favorite of the kids. And blueberry syrup is a popular item in our pantry all year.

With the cold spring and summer, the blueberry crop was a little late in ripening this year according to our friend at the blueberry u-pick farm. But now that the berries are ripe, the picking is in full swing.

I was entertained by some visitors at the cultivated blueberry field this morning. The owner of the farm asked us, along with some others, what type of blueberry we'd like to pick. "We have Blue Crops, Jerseys, Spartans and Early Blues right now" he said. The other people laughed and said "just blueberries." Having gone to this particular farm for a number of years, I know the difference but was a little surprised that the other people (who clearly had never picked blueberries before based on their chit-chat at having, "never done this before") weren't interested in learning about the different types of blueberries. I piped up and said "Blue Crops and Jerseys" and the novices decided to follow us.

I like Blue Crops because they are large and easy to pick even though they aren't as sweet as their smaller counterparts (still very tasty though). Jerseys are small, sweet and pretty close in taste to the wild, low bush blueberries but they take longer to pick. The combination of Blue Crop and Jerseys are good for us because we like easy picking as much as sweet berries.

The novices lasted about 10 minutes with the Blue Crop, declared the sun was too hot and left chatting about how they could tell their friends they picked blueberries in Maine. They picked about a quart I think.

As for my crew, we picked a little over 8 pounds in a half hour. I was feeling pretty good about that -- especially considering that L. ate more than she put in her bucket. We're planning a follow up trip next weekend to reach our poundage goal.

If you're planning on blueberry picking this year, call ahead to the u-pick farms. There are days when farms are "picked-out" and close for a few days to give the remaining berries some time to ripen.

Beach pails with handles are great containers for kids to use to pick blueberries.