Here’s the blueberry crisp, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream added to each plate.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
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The blueberries in my mom’s backyard look especially pretty when they’re at different shades of ripeness.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
These blueberries are just waiting to be picked.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
I was timing myself the other day, as I picked blueberries in my mom’s yard.
There’s one bush that has so many berries so close together, I can pick 100 in about 5 minutes.
And if you were to ask me how old that bush is … I wouldn’t be sure how to answer.
Should I say it’s easily more than 30 years since my late father planted three blueberry bushes?
Or should I say it’s been 4 years since this particular bush seems to have resurrected itself?
Long-time readers may remember the windstorm in April 2020 that knocked down a large blue spruce in my parents’ yard, which is very close to where Mark and I live. Back then I wrote about my narrow escape from the falling tree.
But in that first column about how I — whew! — survived, I didn’t mention how the falling tree squashed the bush that had always yielded the most blueberries.
The following summer, in a food column, I mentioned how there weren’t very many blueberries in the yard, so that year I went to a pick-your-own farm and harvested enough to make blueberry muffins.
Mark and I did plant a little replacement bush, but that one still seems to be more of a blueberry bush-in-training. I think it still produces only about one berry every few days in blueberry season.
But the amazing thing is, after a year or two of dormancy the old blueberry bush somehow seems to have sprung up again, yielding hundreds of berries at a time. How’s that for resilience?
In celebration of the old blueberry bush’s return, I decided to make a blueberry crisp this week, and found an appealing recipe at chocolatecoveredkatie.com. For the record, my “sweetener of choice” was maple syrup, and I didn’t use the optional cornstarch. And I thought this blueberry crisp was sublime.
Here is the recipe:
BLUEBERRY CRISP
4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 tablespoon sweetener of choice
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
1/3 cup flour, such as white, spelt, or oat
1/2 cup rolled or quick oats
1/4 cup sugar, unrefined if desired
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter or coconut oil
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease an 8×8 pan (or double the recipe for a 9×13). If using frozen berries, thaw first. Combine berries, sweetener of choice, and optional cornstarch, then spread into the pan.
Combine all remaining ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl. Cut butter into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry cutter until small crumbles form. (If using oil, simply stir it in.) Sprinkle the crumbles evenly over the berries. Bake on the center rack 25-30 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. Let cool before serving, as it thickens while it cools. The crumble will also thicken overnight.
Store leftovers covered in the fridge, or they can also be frozen. Serve either hot or cold.
