There's nothing like a good healthy competition. (Ask my online Scrabble buddies.) But I know for sure I'm losing the battle for the blueberries with the birds. They're definitely winning. And no strategy I can think of -- not even Mr. Rosemary's BB gun -- is keeping them away. It's a race and the early bird is beating me to the berries.
We've tried netting, but we didn't do it the "right" way and build frames and then attach netting to that. We simply draped flexible fence material over it. We've also tried fake snakes and draping old garden hose -- so that they look like snakes. Still, there are birds beating us to the harvest.
Our latest attempt was one of those fake owls. The little tag said to place it "before the fruit ripens." We were too late.
We're lucky that the former owners had the foresight to plant a couple different varieties among the ten blueberry bushes we have because they ripen at different times making it manageable. Except for the birds.
And despite the birds' tenacity we usually end up with more than enough for ourselves and plenty to give away. I just have to wonder how many quarts they're eating.
The only problem is coming up with different ways to use them. I freeze a lot, but the fresh are so good! Mr. Rosemary loves to eat them plain, maybe lightly sugared, but especially mixed with a variety of berries. I loved the corn and blueberry salad And he likes my blueberry muffins but that's only a once in a while treat. But he didn't really like the blueberry strata And although I love blueberry pie, he doesn't, and I don't need to eat the whole thing. I should try hand pies.
So to satisfy my need to experiment and explore I found this blueberry salsa and it was pretty good. Just pretty good. Keeping some of the blueberries whole is pretty but not very practical because they're hard to keep on a tortilla chip or a cracker. The solution? Spread some creamy cheese -- goat, mascarpone or just Philadelphia -- on a cracker, then top it with the salsa. Kinda defeats the purpose of eating a light fruity salsa, but it's good that way. I didn't try it along side a grilled meat, but I'm sure a plain piece of chicken or pork would love to be accessorized with it.
In the meantime, I'll keep exploring blueberry recipes, and keep after the birds. Wish me luck.
Blueberry Salsa
adapted from Southern Living
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh blueberries
1 cup whole blueberries
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 whole Roma tomato, seeded and chopped
1.2 teaspoon kosher salt.
Mix all together in a large bowl. That's it.
