Blueberry Picking and Muffins

With this summer activity, you have to plan ahead and have a little flexibility-- because it's hard to know EXACTLY when fruit will be available to pick. Also, we usually have to do this activity during the day, as local U-Pick places close around 5-6 p.m.

As with any offsite activity, you will need:

1. Bishopric permission for the activity
2. Parent permission for you to transport their child (signed slips)

Other things you will need for this activity:

1. Buckets: I scored at the dollar store and got small pails, TWO for a dollar and got one for everyone.
2. Bug spray
3. Cash or check to pay for the blueberries. This sounds obvious, but I get so used to paying for things with a swipe of a card that I no longer carry cash or a checkbook routinely. And when you're in the middle of a field, credit card transactions are NOT available.

The great thing about individual buckets is everyone gets to keep what THEY picked. Those who work harder get more. Those who are just being silly and chasing up and down the rows get less.

The girls LOVED picking. I'm glad I got little buckets because I didn't want to pay $50 for blueberries. We had 10 girls and 4 leaders and we picked $20 worth of blueberries in less than 30 minutes. The little buckets limit your expenditure, and that is wise!

When we were finished picking everyone took their bucket and hopped into the cars and we drove back to my house to make muffins. I purchased additional blueberries to make the muffins (1 pint was all we needed). This way no one had to give up their blueberries for muffins all were going to eat.

With 10 girls we divided into two groups of 5, and each group made a batch of muffins. This way everyone got to help measure, stir, mix and scoop batter. I thought about letting the girls take home a pouch of the dry ingredients along with their blueberries, but ended up not doing that. Instead everyone got two muffins to take home and a recipe card.

This recipe stood up to LOTS of stirring, there was plenty of measuring to go around, and the muffins were tasty.

Blueberry Muffins

1 and 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl till well combined. Then in a measuring cup, mix the following:

3/4 c milk (2% works best)
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 egg

When the wet ingredients are well mixed together, pour them into the dry ingredients and stir well. If your batter is thick or hard to stir, add up to 1/4 cup more milk (add just a little at a time).

Mix together 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1 tsp fresh lemon zest. Toss 1 cup blueberries in with the sugar/zest. Once the blueberries are coated, fold them gently into the muffin batter.

Grease 12 muffin cups with crisco. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. When all the cups are filled, gently (or not so gently) tap the muffin pan on the counter. (I use a towel under the pan so it doesn't sound like a jack hammer.) This gets the air bubbles out of the batter and helps the muffins rise evenly. Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Muffins should be lightly golden brown.