Buried by berries

I am SO tired of picking blueberries.

We have four bushes in our backyard, and plenty of scrub jays patrolling the perimeters.  I am fond of blueberries, especially when they are fresh picked and still warm and juicy from their days in the sun.  They are wonderful eaten straight up, or tossed into pancakes, or sunk into homemade muffins.  I am quite amazed, however, how much four bushes can actually produce.  I have probably...I don't know...12 cups of blueberries in my freezer?  I'm just sick of pickin' 'em, and no one else is volunteering to come over.  (Although my brother and nephew are visiting from Illinois this weekend and may view the fruit picking as a novelty.  They live in the suburbs and do not garden.)

My berry stash in the freezer may not seem like much to dyed-in-the-wool home preservists, but it's a lot for me.  There are also raspberries and a growing supply of cut strawberries in there.

Not that I'm complaining!  I'm really gardening and harvesting for the first time in my life, and I'm looking for ways to manage the bounty within my time constraints and resources.  Fortunately, there is a ready supply of resources at Grass Roots to help me out, and I don't just mean my coworkers.

I like my cookbooks to be not just useful, but pretty as well (such an impractical girl...) and we have three new titles that fit the bill.

Paperback, $19.95

I have been eying Put 'em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling by Sherri Brooks Vinton for a couple of weeks now.  Right there on the front cover is a precious little jar of frozen blueberries.  Well, I can do THAT; what else ya got?  (Isn't that a great way to get you to pick up a cookbook?  Taunting?)  I did pick it up, and it looks so useful and pleasant and domestic and doable.  It is divided into two major sections, "Techniques" and "Recipes."  Best of all for someone like me who's standing there going what do I do with all this stuff, the recipes are divided by primary ingredient.  My blueberry problem?  Right here under "Berries."  The pending tomato avalanche?  Covered conveniently under "Tomatoes."  There is good stuff in here.  It's well organized, and even I can manage some of these things on a day off or two.

Hardcover, $22.00

Also on the shelf, I noticed an unassuming and under-sized blue spine, about an inch thick.  I pulled it out, and there on the cover of The River Cottage Preserves Handbook, by Pam Corbin, was something that at least looked like a jar of blueberries with lemonade being poured into it.  On closer inspection, those are probably something else, but it still made me pick up the book.  The book is elegant and pretty and very British.  It is also a hardcover, and, because it is small and difficult to open, I'm frankly afraid to crack it open and give it a good perusal.  It does not look so basic as Put 'em Up, but it does look more challenging.  I think it would make an excellent gift for your favorite bookseller.  Or me.

Paperback, $24.95

Finally, one last book with alluring edibles in glass jars on the cover(doesn't food just look better in jars? unless it's baby food?) arrived just today.  Canning For a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry by Liana Krissof is fresh on the shelf.  This book is also full of delicious-sounding recipes, this one divided by season.  What I like best about this book is that it gives you recipes for the recipes.  Gosh, that sounds complicated, but if you go through the trouble of making homemade pickles or preserves, you may just get tired of eating pickles with your hot dog, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Here are your options.

Well, there we go.  I've made myself hungry again.  It's probably a good thing I work in a bookstore and not a restaurant.  This way I am just overstuffed with books.

See you at the bookstore!

Pamela