Almost missed harvesting blueberries

With a super busy May and June, Drue and I just about missed our annual opportunity to pick blueberries at him mom's orchard in Basile. We ended up waiting until the Fourth of July to make it out to the camp and by that time we were bush hopping picking them sporadically.

But nonetheless, we managed to have two gallons in tow on our way back to New Orleans. Drue is not a fan of preserves when the fruit contains a lot of seeds like strawberries and blueberries, so he asked if I'd try my hand at jelly. I looked up a recipe and gave it a whirl and got to use the Williams-Sonoma chinoise we bought years ago and rarely ever use.

On the first batch, I didn't exactly follow the recipe and added the sugar before straining the berries for juice. It was a difficult given the sugary tar consistency. The second time was much easier because I added the sugar after returning the juice to the dutch oven.

I was absolutely elated that the jelly set up properly and using the liquid pectin was super easy.

Drue also asked me to make some blueberry shrub, a vinegar, fruit and sugar concoction that is added to cocktails to give them a tangy brightness. Shrubs have been popular these days and I first encountered them as bottled products in 2010 at Tales of the Cocktail.