Blueberry Picking and Pie Making

Yesterday we went to a pick your own blueberry farm! They opened at 7:30 am and by the time we got there at 9:30, they had already had 200 lbs of blueberries picked! The blueberry bushes were not bushes at all but trees! They were easily 6-10 feet tall and 20 years old. I have never been blueberry picking before, but we came prepared with buckets to put our loot in. After looking around the house and analyzing all sorts of types of containers, I decided on the plastic easter buckets we had in the garage. Upon arriving at the farm, I realize our buckets were perfect! The owners of the farm suggest we tie the buckets around our waists so we would have both hands free for picking. One hand is needed to hold down the tall branches and the other hand is needed to remove the berries.

Well after an hour of picking, we left with 4 lbs of berries, not a whole lot but good enough. I froze most of them to use later. Blueberries freeze so easily and well, there is just no reason not to. We go through LOTS of blueberries between muffins and smoothies and just eating as a frozen treat in the summer. I really wanted to make some blueberry jam but we are going to need lots more blueberries to do that.

I left just enough blueberries out of the freezer for one of our favorite pies, a perfect dessert for Father's Day! I will worn you, I like a THICK graham cracker crust! And I promise to work on taking more step by step pictures :) This is a great recipe for little hands to help create! My kids love mushing the graham crackers into the pie pan and who doesn't love mushing blueberries!

Yummy Double Blueberry Pie

Crust
1 1/2 C Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/3 C Sugar
6 Tbs butter, melted

Cream Cheese Filling
1- 8oz block of cream cheese, room temp
2 Tbs Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
1/4 C. Powdered Sugar

Blueberry Filling
2 C Blueberries (frozen blueberries are great for this part)
1 Tbs Lemon Juice
1/4 C Water
2 Tbs Corn Starch
1/2 C Sugar

Topping
2 C Fresh Blueberries (Not frozen)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix crumbs, butter and sugar in a bowl and press in a 9in pie pan. Cook for 8 min. Remove from oven and cool.

In a saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, and lemon juice until smooth. Mash 2 cup blueberries (if frozen just cook them and then mash them as they cook.) Stir in  blueberries and sugar and cook on medium heat. Bring to a boil. Cooking and stirring until thick. Remove from heat and cool.

In a separate bowl mix softened cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar with an electric beater until creamy.

Spread cream cheese mixture in the bottom of the cooled crust then top with the cooled blueberry sauce and finally top with the remaining 2 cups of blueberries. Refrigerate until set about 3 hrs.
Serves 8.

ENJOY!