We're drowning in fruit!

'Tis the season for fruit and berries in Oregon, and we have our share of it at the Bates house! Jeff and Emily picked blackberries one day last week, and we made two cobblers - one for us to eat (which we promptly did in one sitting!), and one for Nancy, our neighbor, to thank her for the firewood she gave us after she had a tree cut down. Jeff and I worked on the cobbler together, and we made it the way my grandmother used to, with strips of pie crust inside and out. Pretty yummy! I have some berries in the freezer, too, and made blackberry syrup one morning to go with our pancakes.

I keep berries in the freezer for year-round use, and always have plenty of blackberries, but last year I got caught short on blueberries. I use a lot of them in recipes, pancakes, and muffins, so like to have a good supply on hand. I feared the season was getting away from us again this year, so took Sarah and Emily out to pick blueberries with me yesterday. We went to a little family farm just a few miles from the house called Blueberry Hollow, and their bushes were loaded! We barely got past the first bush, and within 30 minutes had plenty of berries. I put the last batch in the freezer this morning, and now have three gallon bags to use over the course of the next year. Woo hoo!



When we got home last night, there were two huge bowls of peaches on the counter. Larry was busy while we were gone - he picked peaches from the tree in our back yard. Let me just say that this is an ugly, scraggly, peach tree that has never borne decently in the past. I threatened to cut it sown last year, but never got around to it. I guess the tree overhead my insults and decided to prove me wrong, because this year it has outdone itself! We have had a bumper crop of peaches! This is our third picking, and there are still more on the tree. Jeff helped pick last week, and I made a peach crisp that was pretty tasty. Now, however, we have more! What to do?! I don't can or do jellies/jams. After watching my grandmother make blackberry jelly as a child, I decided it was way too much trouble. But, I need to do something if we're going to have this many peaches! In the past, I've harvested our plums and baked with them, freezing the baked goods for future use. I have a whole collection of recipes for using up plums, but not peaches. I suppose I could cut them up and freeze them... although Larry eats them out of hand pretty fast!