It’s been a fast picking season for fruits during our summer of 2024.
Strawberry season, normally prime picking through the end of June, ended three weeks early for most picking patches.
Blueberries and wild black raspberries, normally at the peak of ripeness the second week of July, had branches and brambles laden with fruit by the middle of June.
The escalated seasons this summer for berry harvesting are certainly due to our slowly shifting seasons, a cause also agreed upon by our neighboring farmers and fruit growers.
Adding to shortened and expedited seasons this year is the compounded result of the extremely hot and humid temperatures throughout June, which pushed berries to ripen fast over a smaller window for the 2024 picking season.
Monday, July 8 is declared National Blueberry Day, an observance in 2024 that comes with the unusual caveat that berry bounties are already peaking at a time when the blueberry season would normally just be getting started.
My oldest sister Carol also has her own private family blueberry patch at her family’s farm near Culver with bushes that are more than 60 years old and still yielding a blue bounty. My older brother David came from Lima, Ohio, last month with his son Quentin to help my sister pick and take home plenty of extra berries to freeze to enjoy for later use.
Blueberry bushes require patience and plenty of pruning and care. I learned this early in life from my first employer.
As mentioned in previous columns and my published cookbooks, Dee and Jerry Spenner, who later happily retired to Holiday, Florida, were my first employers and helped instill the important qualities of dedication, responsibility, time management, and pride for accomplishment, all lessons equally shared and learned by my older brothers and sisters who also worked at the Spenner Farm.
I was 10 years old when I first joined my siblings in the summer of 1980 working at their neighboring 60-acre Spenner Farm in North Judson, which yielded strawberries, blueberries, sweet corn, tomatoes, (wild) asparagus, pickles and peppers among the fresh harvest of produce sold to customers at their seasonal farm stand. I worked for the Spenner Family for 10 years, until the summer of 1988 when I prepared to leave for college at Valparaiso University in the fall.
During my time at the Spenner Farm, Jerry was proud of his blueberry bushes picking patch which required seven years after the initial planting before they were ready to provide a generous picking of fruit. The patch also required much pruning and maintenance throughout the year.
My brother David and I agreed our older sister Carol could learn a thing from our longtime and favored employer from the past. Since the pandemic, Carol’s blueberry patch has become overgrown and in need of not only pruning but perhaps a machete! Last week, Carol even encountered a large snarling raccoon in the patch, very protective of the landscape and sweet treat terrain of clusters of berries.
Jerry Spenner, 91, died on Oct. 11, 2021, and this column is dedicated to his memory.
Today’s recipe is from my sister Carol’s farm neighbor and friend Amy Bauer for her “fluffiest blueberry pancakes.” Amy’s recipe for her signature bread pudding with vanilla sauce is featured in my third published cookbook, “Further From the Farm.”
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Amy Bauer’s “Fluffiest” Blueberry Pancakes
Makes six servings
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup fresh blueberries
More butter for the pan
Directions:
1. Mix the milk and vinegar and let it sit for a minute or two.
2. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Whisk the egg, milk and melted butter into the dry ingredients until just combined.
3. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Melt a little smear of butter in the pan.
4. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter into the hot skillet and spread it flat-like to form pancakes. Arrange a few blueberries on top of each. Cook until you see little bubbles on top and the edges starting to firm up. Flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes until the pancakes are “sky-high fluffy” and cooked through.
5. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
