We went blueberry picking on Saturday, June 13. (I know, I know. I'm behind. But I've been BUSY!) 

I had never heard of Bryant's Blueberries until this year and it seems like I've heard it mentioned from at least a half a dozen different sources. If you've never been, you're really missing something special. It took us about 45 minutes to get there, but it was a lovely scenic drive through Southern Indiana. We even got to see probably one of the few remaining drive-ins on our way through Georgetown.  

They're now open several days of the week, but in mid-June it was at the beginning of the picking season. We parked in a lot fairly close to the unimposing barn (picture above) where we waited for Mrs. Bryant to pull up in a golf cart and ferry us to the blueberry patch. She stopped off at a "mixed row" where she picked several of the 6 different types of blueberries for us to taste. When she heard I was mainly interested in canning and pies, she drove us to the Bluerays. She advised us that these were more tart and thus would withstand the sugar necessary for canning. Some of the sweeter berries are better for muffins, but their delicate flavor gets lost during the canning process. 

Boy howdy! I think these were the biggest, juiciest blueberries I've ever seen. They may have been a little tart, but they were sweet enough to satisfy my 3.5yo, who ate at least as many as she picked.

Even though we had full buckets, Piper kept wanting to pick. She was having that much fun. As we were walking back to the barn area to weigh our berries, she kept stopping every other bush to pick just one more perfect berry.

We ended up with roughly 11 pounds of blueberries. At $2 a pound, that was a pretty sweet deal. The layout really is ideal for a picnic, but it was mid afternoon and I wanted to get home to get our lovely berries in the fridge so we said goodbye to Bryant's.

What did I do with 11 pounds of blueberries? Well, I made the aforementioned jam. I chose a delicious blueberry lime jam. It had just a hint of lime zest. I made 6 12-ounce jars of that, along with a little left over to immediately spread on bread. I also made a bunch of smoothies and 3 of these luscious Blueberry Cream Pies.