A Better Way to Harvest Blueberries

We try to foster a spirit of constant innovation here at NTSCBlog.com. Take for example our newest creation, the TG-2000 double-tiered blueberry picking machine, shown here in it's first run last weekend.

It's only got two parts - one reasonably strong man and a somewhat light boy. This machine allows you to harvest berries from the seldom-picked tops of the blueberry bushes while still maintaining the traditional eye-level harvest. The best part is that the critical parts of the machine run on chocolate ice cream, thus reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

In all seriousness, picking blueberries isn't nearly as productive as picking strawberries, but it was still a lot of fun. As an added bonus, the farm we visited doesn't spray their crops, so we could eat the berries straight off the bush. This significantly reduced the actual cost per pound.

This time we brought our nephews Thomas and Grant, who are built for blueberry picking. We set a heady goal of picking 14 pounds of berries, but the scorching Georgia sun only allowed us to pick 7 before we cried uncle and headed home. This is probably a good thing, since we grossly underestimated how much 7 pounds of blueberries is.

Unlike the entirety of our strawberry harvest, which met a quick and decisive end at the hands of my beautiful wife, some of our blueberries were reserved for future cooking projects. I foresee some homemade preserves or muffins in the future.

I think there's a little more at stake picking blueberries than with strawberries. The odds of a random tart berry making it's way into the bucket is significantly higher, especially when the slave-driving Aunt and Uncle demand more production and the less enthusiastic children start tossing anything round into the bucket to fill 'er up.

That's fine with me. Just like homemade bread, herbs, BBQ or other labors of love, the hand made stuff tastes way better than the mass produced factory food that most people shovel into their mouths. I'm frequently guilty of food ambivalence, but when I can I'll gladly take the time to get one step closer to culinary harmony. It's good for me.