It’s u-pick blueberry season in Florida!
There must be half a dozen u-pick blueberry farms within 20 minutes of Titusville, but I know there are hundreds through the rest of Florida. My brother and sister-in-law discovered Holland Family Blueberry Farm last year and have been stalking their Facebook page waiting for them to reopen for the season. They reopened last weekend and we decided to make a family outing there this morning.
Holland Family Farm is a small blueberry farm that’s run privately by the Holland family in Mims. It’s a small hidden place off of US-1 that you may miss if you weren’t looking for it. We parked and headed to the tent to collect our buckets for picking. Each bucket holds approximately 5lbs of blueberries and blueberries are $3 per pound.
The rows of berries are labeled by colored markers. The blue means the row of blueberries are sweeter while the other colors reflect different levels of tartness.
My friend Rachel joined us as well.
It’s early in the season, so you had to dig for the riper blueberries. There were still plenty on the branches and we had no problems filling our buckets.
Check out the size of those berries!
We spent about and hour or two in the fields picking berries. It was almost soothing going through each bush and finding the bright blueberries to pick. I filled up about 1/2 my bucket and spent $8 on 2+ pound of blueberries. Not bad if you ask me.
We couldn’t wait to turn the berries into something amazing as soon as we got home.
The farm was handing out a recipe for a blueberry pie that a customer had left for them. They said it was good, so we decided to give it a shot. My dad even made a pie crust from scratch for the occasion.
The blueberry pie recipe was pretty basic:
- 1 baked pie crust
- 4 cups blueberries
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 T corn starch
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp butter
Cook 2 cups blueberries, sugar, salt, corn starch, and water until berries have melted down. Remove from stove and add lemon juice and butter. Cool to just medium warm and add 2 cups fresh blueberries. Pour into pie crust. Chill well.
I had my piece with cool whip.
The pie was good. It wasn’t terribly sweet and had just the right amount of tartness to it. I think it was hit, there’s not even a crumb of it left!
After blueberry picking we headed to the Rocketman expo and waited in the longest line I’ve EVER waited in at a race before.
It took us 45 minutes to get to the registration table. INSANE.
Once we got our bibs, we headed to the bike racks to rack our bikes overnight. I can’t say I’ve ever racked my bike in a bank parking lot before. Hey, at least I won’t have to worry about dirt or sand. π
It was raining so my brother helped me cover the good ole B16. We need to keep her fresh for the morning!
Kind of jealous of all the bike covers we saw. Maybe it’s time to invest?
The swim tomorrow takes place in the Indian River. It was fun listening to all the tourists talk about the water. (By the way there’s a CRAZY amount of tourists in town for this race! Titusville needs this desperately, I hope they all filled the restaurants this weekend.) Anyway, the river is ridiculously shallow. We used to take boats out as a kid and whenever we fell off of the kneeboard or water skies we would simply stand up. You could basically wade from one side of the river to the over and always be able to touch ground. I think that surprised a lot of the out-of-town athletes – they’re not used to being able to stand up in the middle of a river.
Ben and I are pumped and ready for race day! It’s going to be a fun one!
Good night!!!
Yum that blueberry pie looked delicious!
I love blueberries and would love to do blueberry picking π
Jan @ Sprouts n Squats recently posted..Berry Quinoa Flour Pancakes & May Goals
I have always wanted to go blueberry picking. We have an apple orchard about n hour from us…I keep meaning to do that too! If it wasn’t so HOT in June in Texas, it might be more on the brain.
Good luck on the race!
And I’m so jealous of your blueberries. I’ve never been blueberry picking before!
Jojo recently posted..Beer Belly
I’m very jealous of how cheap your blueberries are. It’s Β£2 for a tiny punnet in the UK. Not much bigger than snack serving size. π
Mary recently posted..Today has mostly been…
Blueberries have been in such short supply here in NY (and the ones I can find are quite expensive) that I have been rationing them to myself! Once they start reappearing I need to try that recipe. Love blueberries…
meredith recently posted..Double the Fun
Ha–racking your bike in a back parking lot is too funny. Have a great race!
Carrie @ Fitness and Frozen Grapes recently posted..Friday Favorites β May 3
oh how fun! I want to go strawberry picking this year!
Danielle @ itsaharleyyylife recently posted..Sweaty Sunday 5.5.13
The blueberries look amazing
I’ve been strawberry, apple, and cherry picking, but never blueberry!! Looks delicious!
Good luck tomorrow!
Logan @ Mountains and Miles recently posted..Indiana Jones Turns 4!!
Have a blast at your race today!
Emily @ The Swallow Flies recently posted..Hunger Solutions
Oh my gosh, this makes me crave wild blueberries! Wish we had those on the OBX… also, love your sister-in-law rocking the Color Me Rad gear! I ran that a couple weeks ago and it’s my favorite race shirt ever! So cute and comfy π
Julie @ There and Back Again recently posted..Booked!
I have to wait until July for blueberry picking season here!
i wanted to tell you that i think i’m hooked on doing races!! π they used to intimidate me but i love them now! i love the vibe, the people of all ages come and cheer everyone on! just did a 10k today, survival race yesterday and also cf! obvs cf rocks and has made my running better! i can’t wait to run more! and yes i would love to do cf scaled version competitions!
That looks so yummy! I may have found my weekend activity for this week!
Those blueberries look good and huge! We don’t have anything like that around here anymore. We used to have an apple orchard but that went out of business.
Have a great race day! Love the shirts! I wouldn’t bother with a bike cover what your doing seems perfectly reasonable. But I’m cheap and I’m not a biker so….
Carli recently posted..Zumba Sentao #FitnessFriday
mmmmm blueberry picking!! I love doing that with family–so fun!
Wild blueberry pie – perfection. Have an awesome race!
Susie recently posted..Working Holiday Visas – before you leave Australia
We always used to go strawberry and apple picking as a kid but I’ve never been blueberry picking! Seeing for my love of blueberries, this is something I NEED to do in my lifetime! π
Katie @ Talk Less, Say More recently posted..Seven Things Sunday
I like your ratio of cool whip to pie π
Jane @ Not Plain So Jane recently posted..Eating Out Tips: Cinco de Mayo!
Aw, that looks like so much fun! I’m totally jealous though as I adore blueberries, and they’re out of season here. Sob! Can’t wait to read your Rocketman Recap!
Rhi @ Hummingbird’s Song recently posted..Running and Dancing on Clouds.
I like how they spelled approximately on the bucket!!!!!!!!
CONGRATS on your race! I’m so excited about you pick season! We did strawberries last week. I’m excited for blackberry next!
Erica recently posted..Weekly Meal Plan & Collective Coffee Co.
I used to go strawberry picking like that with my mom when I was a kid. There is something really special about the tranquility of being out there and picking your own fruit. And ooooh is it so good when you take it home and eat it that same day! Thanks for sharing!
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