Crispy Grain Crackers

Have you ever thought about making your own crackers? It's not too difficult, and you can use your own healthy ingredients (unlike most of those you'll find on the grocery shelves).

Going gluten-free prompted me to try some cracker recipes, and this one is now a favorite of mine. I like to make the dough and freeze it until ready to bake. You can get creative by mixing in various herbs, spices, and other ingredients... invent your own signature crackers! This version calls for cooked brown rice and cooked quinoa, but I've also made the crackers with only brown rice, and they were equally yummy. Next time I might try making these with some black rice!

(Foods in red type are detailed on the "Ingredients" page of this blog.)

Cooked Grain Crackers

INGREDIENTS

• 2 c cooked brown rice
• 2 c cooked quinoa
• 2/3 c raw sesame seeds
• 1/2 c flax seeds, soaked in 1/2 c water for 20 minutes (do not drain)
• 2 T tamari soy sauce
• 1 t salt
• 3 T olive oil
• Optional Add-Ins: dried herbs, finely chopped sundried tomatoes, hot pepper powder, spices, cracked pepper, powdered horseradish, granulated fine onions or garlic, chia seeds, poppy seeds

INSTRUCTIONS
Mix all ingredients - and your choice of "add-in's" - in a food processor to make a dough (add water if too dry). At this point, you can form the dough into two flattened balls or logs and refrigerate or freeze to bake later. Thaw in the refrigerator before proceeding with the steps below.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using half the dough at a time, lay a flattened dough disk on a piece of baling parchment which fits into a shallow baking pan (I use pizza pans). Top with another sheet of parchment or waxed paper, and roll very thin (1/8"). Peel back and remove the top sheet. Transfer the flattened dough, on the parchment, to the ungreased baking sheet. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut into cracker size, but don't worry about separating the pieces.

Sprinkle with coarse salt, if desired. Bake 25-35 minutes at 350 degrees, until brown and crisp. The outer edges may brown faster, so you can remove those crackers and continue baking the rest.

Remove to a cooling rack when browned and crisp. If you don't eat these all right away, store overnight in a brown bag to retain crispness. Whenever I've serve them, I haven't had any leftover to worry about! Makes several dozen 2" crackers.

How to Select Garden Seeds

Early spring lettuce, planted from thinning the original seed bed

Seed catalogs are showing up in my mail these days, and it is really tempting to make a big purchase! Just as many of my quilting friends have more fabric than they will ever use, some of us gardeners get overzealous buying seeds. Before you fill out your garden seed order, there are many factors to consider. Here are a few for you to think about:

• Do you want to start some plants from seed indoors, before it's warm enough to plant outside (like tomatoes, peppers, basil, etc.)? If yes, you'll need sunny, warm indoor spaces. You'll need to care for the seedlings, transplanting as they grow, watching for mold, fungus, insects, etc. You'll need to time when to start your plantings to your locale, vegetable by vegetable, and you'll need to "harden off" the plants before they go permanently into the garden soil.
• Would you be better off buying small plants for those warm weather crops from a local nursery? Many vendors now carry heirloom varieties, even big stores like Lowes and Home Depot.
• Are you going to grow organically, and is it important to you that the seeds are also organically produced?
• Will your garden grow only annual plants, or a mix of annuals, reseeding biennials, perennials?
• Do you want to plant a cold weather garden (with cool crops like lettuce, spinach, peas), followed by warm weather veggies after the early ones are harvested, and perhaps even a fall planting of cool crops again?
• Do you want to plant some crops from seeds directly in the garden (beans, carrots)? Some vegetables do not take well to transplanting, so keep this in mind.
• Are you concerned about planting heirlooms vs hybrids? Are you going to save seeds? (if so, you may need to limit the variety of certain vegetables that cross pollinate - read up on seed saving.)
• Do you want a big harvest of one item all at once (good when canning or pickling) or do you want to stagger the harvest over the growing season?
• Do you have room for veggies that need space to spread, like squash, melons, sweet potatoes?
• Do you want to set up strong supports to grow plants vertically, as with trellises needed for pole beans, or would you prefer "bush" and/or dwarf varieties which grow more compactly and without supports? I grow bush beans and midget okra, with no lack of flavor compared with taller varieties.
• Do you want to experiment with new veggies or stick with "tried and true" proven winners? I've tried a few different types of jalapenos, but the old standard is my favorite.
• Do you have a place to store extra seeds, where it is dry and cool?
• Do you have gardening friends, neighbors, local garden clubs, and/or farmers markets which sell or exchange seeds? These choices might be especially well suited for your area, and already ear-marked as favorites by others.
• What gardening zone are you in, and what are the best plants for your location? Dry vs. humid, long hot summer vs. short growing season… all considerations for what veggies and what varieties you select to grow.
• What type of soil is in your garden - clay, sandy, rocky? How does your garden area drain?
• How much sun does your garden location get?
• Do you want to stick to vegetables exclusively, or mix in herbs and/or flowers?
• And, perhaps most important, how much time do you want to spend gardening: prepping the beds, planting, thinning, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, treating for pests and diseases, and preserving? It's quick and easy (and inexpensive) to buy and plant seeds, so it can be very tempting to over-plant. I've seen new gardeners get overwhelmed and frustrated because they can't keep up with the gardening chores after planting loads of seeds, often surrendering to weeds and or pest infestations without getting much harvest.

I grow lots of basil so I can freeze many bags of pesto.

Seminole squash proved resistant to squash bugs.

Have I confused you? My quick recommendation, particularly if this is the first year you are gardening in a certain location, is to start small and keep it simple. Put your energy into making sure your soil is healthy and nourished - get a soil test kit from your local extension office and get the best analysis they offer, then amend the soil as needed. Set up a compost bin and learn how to use it, along with compost tea.

Once that's done, decide what are your favorite veggies and which of those are easy to grow and taste better when homegrown. Also determine what you are going to do with each vegetable crop your harvest - eat everything fresh, OR preserve by canning or freezing or dehydrating or pickling...?

I try to look for varieties of seeds which are recommended and suitable for my area, particularly if I buy from a seed catalog which is selling seeds for a big range of gardening zones. I know my soil is primarily clay, so that might influence the variety or type of veggies I grow (like growing carrots, for example). I look for seeds with resistance to problems I know I have in my garden, like squash bugs or tomato blight. Seminole squash was described as being naturally resistant to squash bugs, and I grew it successful last year. Ask local gardeners who match your gardening style (organic? heirloom seeds? permaculture?) what varieties they like best and have the most success with.

Heirloom chioggia beets grow well, and are tasty and pretty!

Just for fun, I usually try a few new and different crops each gardening year. Last year I tried growing small patches of a few grains - buckwheat, sorghum, oats, and amaranth - with mixed success. Roselle hibiscus was an experiment last season, and it will surely have a place in my garden again next year. I grew two different varieties of beans, and really liked one called Vermont Red Cranberry. However, dried beans are so inexpensive, I probably won't grow them again. One year I tried growing garbanzo beans, but each pod had only one or two beans, so I never bothered with those again.

Have fun planning your garden and let me know your successes and failures!

Cubes of a Different Color

Fresh pureed blackberries, from the Vitamix to the trays

You might have heard of freezing homemade pesto in an ice cube tray; it allows you to thaw and use small portions at a time rather than defrosting a big block. I've expanded on this idea to freeze many of my fruit, vegetable, herb and berry harvests. Of course, I use a set of trays dedicated to freezing food vs. water. Once frozen, the individual cubes are popped out and stored in the freezer in zipper bags. This method combines small portion size, minimized freezer space, convenience for cooking from scratch, and preservation of great flavors.

Freezing my harvests into cubes has additionally proven to be the best way to preserve certain items for off-season use. Cilantro is wonderful fresh, but loses its flavor when dried. It grows best here in the winter months, so I don't have it growing to add fresh when tomatoes are ripening and I make fresh salsa. Freezing makes cilantro available when I want to use it in summertime, with its flavor as close to fresh as I've found (read below how I prepare it to freeze in cubes). Also, putting fresh harvested and cured garlic in a dark, cool place works for short term storing, but, for me, the heads eventually start to sprout or shrivel up. Freezing into cubes preserves it for me to use year-round.

Basically, any juicy produce can be chopped fine or pureed in a food processor and then frozen as cubes. If the food is not liquid enough, I add a small amount of oil or some other liquid which matches what I'm likely to put in a recipe with the pureed item. For example, I chop fresh cilantro and mix it with freshly squeezed lime juice to freeze into cubes, since I'm likely to use the cilantro in salsa or some other Mexi-inspired recipe which includes lime juice.

Jalapenos and olive oil cubes (note the gloves!)

My Vitamix, the super blender I use for smoothies and lots of other food prep, is my kitchen aide when preparing fresh raw berries for freezing into cubes. The Vitamix action is powerful enough to pulverize the the seeds of raspberries and strawberries and create a thick smooth puree, no seeds detectable. Frozen into cubes, these make a great addition to the smoothies when the fresh berries are not in season. For harvests which don't need to be so finely pulverized, I use my food processor to chop the ingredients.

Some of my favorite veggies, herbs and fruits to freeze into cubes include:

• Basil with olive oil (no need to add parmesan cheese and pinenuts/sunflower seeds yet - just add them when you are ready to make and use the basil in a pesto sauce)
• Peeled garlic pureed with olive oil
• Chopped jalapeno with olive oil
• Chopped cilantro with lime juice
• Pureed #berries
• Pureed fresh ginger root
• Chopped lemon balm with lemon juice
• Applesauce (one or two cubes are a nice portion for adding to a cup of plain yogurt)
• Fresh juice and pulp from citrus fruits (when my Florida friends bring some from their trees :-)

I use minced #garlic very frequently, like for my Caesar Salad Dressing and for Scampi. I keep a small jar permanently in the 'fridge, popping a frozen garlic cube into the jar whenever it runs empty.

Let me know your ideas for freezing in #icecube trays!

Pureed garlic in oil on the left, chopped cilantro in lime juice on the right

Get Regular

This post is for mature audiences. However, even if you are a "millennial" (born between 1982 - 2002) you could benefit from this information, considering the sorry state of the average American diet.

At his most recent colonoscopy, my husband Rick was diagnosed with diverticulosis, a symptomless condition of the intestines which seems to be common in our aging baby boomer generation. The suggested lifestyle change for people with diverticulosis is to add more fiber to the diet. Untreated #diverticulosis can become the painful diverticulitis, so it is important to prevent the condition from worsening.

NOTE: The Harvard School of Public Health recommends that children and adults consume 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories of food they eat each day. For an adult male between the ages of 19 and 30 who eats about 2,800 calories per day, that means 38 grams of fiber per day; for an adult female of the same age who eats about 1800 calories per day, that means 25 grams.

Anyway, the list of recommended foods for increasing #fiber in our diets which the doctor handed us didn't vary much from what we already eat, so that was a dead end. And our daily green smoothies also provide high amounts of fruit and vegetable fiber. But the doctor also recommended supplementing with "Konsyl", a #psyllium (pronounced "silly-um") soluble fiber powder. I liked the fact that he had suggested a natural product with no added sugar or artificial ingredients; psyllium is derived from the seeds of a plant called plantago ovate. Following the doctor's advice, we bought powdered psyllium at our local drug store. Since then I have been using a psyllium grown organically which seems to be ground a little finer too.

The instructions on the powdered psyllium said to mix 1 teaspoon with water or juice, one to three times per day… but it's a bit tough to swallow! I started thinking about how to make this fiber supplement more palatable. I had made a couple of candy truffle recipes, and I figured the powdered psyllium could be incorporated with nut butter, sweetener, cinnamon, and other good tasting ingredients, similar to the truffles. So I've created a recipe for a raw fiber bar, easy to make, which tastes like a piece of candy… and is delivering the daily recommended amount of psyllium fiber. My measurements were based on making an easy-to-eat daily portion of the fiber supplement, equivalent to 1 tablespoon (= 3 teaspoons) per day.

JUDY'S FIBER BARS
(makes 28)
My preferences for ingredients in red type in my recipes are further explained on the "ingredients" page

1 c psyllium powder
1 cup almond flour (or very finely ground almonds)
2/3 c nut butter (peanut butter, almond butter, etc.)
2 T carob powder* OR unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T honey
2 T coconut oil **
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients in a food processor until completely blended and crumbly. Remove mixture and pat into a ball. Cut the ball in half. On waxed paper, form each half into a rectangle, about 2" x 6" x 3/4" thick. Make one cut lengthwise, then evenly space 6 cuts across the rectangle - this will create 14 pieces for each half of the dough. No need to break them apart; just scoring them will make it easy to break one off once they are refrigerated. Eat one piece every day, remembering to drink lots of fluids. It sort of sticks to your inner mouth and teeth, so remembering to drink is not usually a problem!

Refrigerate one of the 14-slice bars, and slide the other into a zip back and freeze until ready to use. Taking one daily, you now have approximately a one-month supply. This bar will help make you more regular, and could decrease the likelihood that you will develop painful diverticulitis. The recipe is #gluten-free also.

* I use #carob powder, which has a chocolate taste and no caffeine, but, more importantly, it is a source of soluable fiber and reputed to improve digestion, with other nutritional benefits.

** Coconut oil is solid when refrigerated, so it helps make the bars firm. I like the health benefits of coconut oil also. Olive oil can be substituted.

Mother Nature's Timing

All these tiny seeds from one poppy!

If you've been saving seeds from your own plants, you might have encountered the terminology "cold stratification." This is a process which mimics what Mother Nature does in the wild to control the timing of new seedlings. It is a necessary "pretreatment" for certain seeds (but not for all seeds), which will not germinate otherwise.

Cold stratification subjects the seeds to cold and moist conditions for one to three months (varies with species), either outdoors in the natural environment, or in similar conditions you create indoors. Without this exposure, the seeds will not germinate, so this requirement dictates the timing of next season's growth.

Take wildflowers as an example. If my wild poppies flower in May, I will leave the spent flower on the plant to create seedpods which ripen in late June. The pods bend over and dump hundreds of tiny seeds on the ground. If these seeds were to germinate right away, new young poppy plants would start growing right away and flower again in a month or two. But Mother Nature didn't intend these wild poppies to be flowering again in late summer. To prevent the dropped seeds from germinating immediately, cold stratification is required before wild poppy seeds will germinate. So they must be exposed to winter weather, sitting dormant in the soil before they can germinate and begin to grow the following year. So if I gather those seeds in June, store them in my 60°F basement in an envelope until next spring, they most likely will not germinate when I plant them.

For this reason, I commonly sow my wildflower seeds between September and December, directly on the soil where I want them to grow. I'm not fussy about this, since they'd normally just drop off the plant, so the most I might do is to rake the soil to roughen it, then throw the seeds out of my hand. This is how I scatter my collected wildflower seeds - poppies, black-eyed susan, oxtail daisies, blanket flower, larkspur, columbine, Mexican hat and others. This gives me a great crop of little seedlings in late winter, and they are strong little plants by the time the spring temperatures warm up.

But if you want to harvest and store seeds which require cold stratification - many seed catalogs and other online sources can identify the plants which require this for germination - and plant them early in the next season, you can artificially simulate nature's cold stratification process. Here's how:

Wild Columbine

1) Clean the seeds so no other plant materials (leaves, pods, etc.) are mixed with them

2) Place cleaned seeds in a zip bag with a paper towel or sterile vermiculite or sand, slightly dampened moistened but not so wet that mold will form. A little powdered fungicide can be added.

3) Store the zip bag in the refrigerator, preferably in the veggie/fruit compartment (temperatures from 34 to 41°F are recommended). Do not put in the freezer. Length of time in the fridge varies; do you research online or mimic your winter conditions.

4) Check seeds regularly for fungus or mold or early germination

Read more about cold stratification and about saving heirloom seeds.

Grow a Zinger of a Plant

One of my favorite new plants in the garden this summer has been a flowering shrub called "Roselle Hibiscus." Did you ever hear of Red Zinger Tea? Part of this plant forms the main ingredient of the tea, and gives it the distinct red color. Roselle's reputed health benefits - lower blood pressure, weight loss, lower cholesterol, improved hair health, and more - are important, and it is high in anti-oxidant bioflavonoids. I'm a tea drinker and was intrigued to learn I could grow this unique and beautiful plant in my own garden.

The idea to grow my own Roselle came from a lecture I attended on herbs for boosting the immune system by herbalist Juliet Blankespoor of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange was my source for heirloom seeds for Thai Red Roselle Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa). This is a sub-tropical plant, native to India and Malaysia, so I suspect it will grow as an annual here in my Zone 7 gardens. The seed company noted that, of the many varieties they tested, the Thai Red Roselle was the only one which began flowering by mid summer at their location in Virginia. Growers south of me have called the plant "Florida Cranberry" because of the tart taste and ability to substitute for northern cranberries. The seed company advises to grow Roselle with conditions similar to growing a tomato plant. Since I didn't learn about Roselle until March, I didn't start my seedlings until April. Only 2 of about 10 seeds I planted germinated, but two plants have turned out to be plenty for me. I started the seedlings indoors in a pot, in my south facing window.

The Roselle Hibiscus plant grows best in full sun, and I transplanted my 4" seedlings outdoors well after the last frost, into my new front yard edible garden, about 5 feet apart. Don't fertilize heavily or you'll get lots of leaves and no flowers. A bushy shrub with red stems and green leaves grew rather quickly for me, with lots of branching. A bonus to me is that the citrus-tasting leaves are edible, so I've been harvested the tender new ones for my green smoothies. The leaves can be added to salads and can be air-dried for later use too. Lovely pale yellow 2" flowers, deep red at the center, began blooming around mid July. Sadly, each pretty bloom lasts just one day, like other members of the hibiscus family. Even the spent flower is pretty though, with petals of pale coral soon dropping off.

The pod which grows after the flower dies is dark red and shaped like a big teardrop. This is the plant part which gets harvested. A developing seed pod is encased in this pod, in the "calyxes" (aka "calyces"), which are bright red points formed from the "sepals" of the flower. When these calyxes grow about 1-1/4" tall and full - which happens within a week after the flowering stage - they are harvested by snapping them off by hand or clipping them off so as not to damage the plant stem if they don't release readily. As of early October (our annual average first frost here is Oct. 15), I have harvested about 150 calyxes. The lovely shrubs, with a few stems now reaching 5 feet tall, are still flowering aggressively, so if I cover them on our coldest nights I can extend the season. I plan to leave some of the calyxes unpicked so the heirloom seeds inside can mature on the plant and I can save them for planting next year, even if I have to cut off a stem and let it continue to mature and dry indoors.

Iced Roselle Red Zinger tea - yummy!

Harvesting frequently increases the continued production of flowers. Commercial growers have hollow tubes to remove the inner pod, but, for my small harvests, I simply tear off the dark red calyxes at the base where they join the seed pod. (The seed pods are discarded or saved to dry for the seeds.) These tart, fruity pieces can be used fresh, frozen, or dehydrated. I boiled about 6 calyxes in a pint of water, simmering for 10 minutes, to make a fruity red tea. They've gone fresh into my smoothies too. I'm air-drying most of my harvest, to make my own tea blend, and I've tried freezing some in zip bags. I intend to try chopping some fresh calyxes to try substituting for dried cranberries in a quick bread recipe, so I'll let you know how that works. The plant naturally contains pectin, so it is often used to make jam or jelly.

I've started saving the Roselle Hibiscus seeds to share with friends, so let me know if you want some. I expect to have a few to sell or trade at our local Farmers Market plant and seed swap, coming up on Friday, Oct. 18 2013. Try growing red zinger in your garden next season!

Top 10 Reasons to Grow Blueberries

Yesterday's harvest: ten cups of yummy berries!

If I could only grow one fruit, it would be blueberries. I love them! This is the first year since I planted blueberries on this land 8 years ago that I will harvest enough without augmenting with a visit to a u-pick farm. Yeah!

Why grow blueberries? Because they are...

1. packed with nutrients
2. naturally pest- and disease-resistant
3. low maintenance
4. attractive additions to a landscape in all seasons
5. easy to harvest
6. heat, cold, and drought tolerant
7. delicious
8. eaten raw or cooked
9. easy to preserve (freeze, dehydrate, jam)
10. naturally sweet

Blueberries are great in these lemon yellow squash muffins!

Choosing a variety
Blueberries come in 3 basic types: low bush, high bush, and rabbit eye. Within each type, varieties can be chosen for harvesting in early, middle, or late season. Wild blueberries grow in many parts of the country, and tend to be smaller berries than the nursery varieties - but still wonderful. Check with your local garden centers and research varieties online to see which are best suited for your area. 

Some varieties are self-pollinating, but a bigger yield and extended season comes from planting more than one variety. I have several varieties, for a total of 12 bushes. Originally, I had carefully diagrammed which variety was planted in each spot, to help me keep track. Unfortunately, while moving some of the bushes around I lost track of what some of them are. No harm done - I love them all! My selection here in Tennessee  - zone 7 - includes Misty (a Southern high bush), Tifblue Rabbiteye, Climax Rabbiteye, Bluecrop high bush, Powderblue (a Southern hybrid), Sunshine (another Southern high bush), and Ka-Bluey® (a Gurney's Seed & Nursery Company hybrid).

How to Plant
Blueberries favor a sunny location, in soil with a pH of 4.5 to 5.2. This is higher soil acidity than most places have naturally, so it's often necessary to alter the soil they are planted in. A soil test can tell you the natural acidity of your planting bed, and you can adjust the pH accordingly.
 

In my area, blueberries are best planted in fall or spring. When planting new blueberry bushes, dig a hole about 2-1/2 feet wide and 1 foot deep - blueberries are shallow-rooted. Amending my heavy clay soil was essential. A rule of thumb is to plant the bush at the height it was in its pot, filling the hole with a mix of peat moss (naturally acidic), bark mulch (for good drainage), and good organic soil, at a 1:1:1 ratio, along with a dose of powdered garden sulfur (more acidity). Keep separate blueberry bushes at least 5 feet apart. Since the roots are shallow, mulching with 2 to 4 inches of bark mulch or pine straw will help keep the plants evenly moist, protect the roots, and keep down weeds. It will decompose to add nutrients to the soil also, so mulch annually.

Caring for the Blueberry Bushes
I add a dose of garden sulfur to each blueberry bush as the growth starts in early spring. Fertilizers like organic Hollytone are high in acid, and good for use on blueberries once the plants are established. Blueberries are high nitrogen feeders, so a dose of cottonseed meal is also good. 

You might not need to prune for the first 2-3 years of growth. Pruning should be done in mid or late winter, depending on your location. Remove dead, diseased or damaged canes, as well as low, small fine twigs. Prune to open the center and allow light and good airflow - especially important in humid areas like mine. Prune canes which are older the 6 years, and other canes by about 1/3, to encourage branching. A healthy bush could continue to bear fruit for 20 years or more.

Flowering ajuga brings bees to the blueberry flowers too.

Increase pollination
I am convinced that my blueberries produce well because of the ground cover I have planted around them - not to mention the abundance of additional spring flowers in my gardens. The timing of the blueberry flowers, in April, coincides with the flowering of "ajuga" (aka bugleweed), a hardy low groundcover which sends up a purple-blue spike of flowers. The bees flock to the ajuga flowers and visit my blueberry bushes at the same time, so cross pollination occurs successfully.

The berries don't all ripen at the same time

Harvesting
Usually blueberries within one bunch don't all ripen at once; you have to pick and choose the darkest ones, being carefully not to damage the unripened berries. The ripest ones often look like they have a powdery coating, which wipes away to shiny deep blue. If they are still a little pink, they won't be so sweet. With early, middle, and late varieties, you can extend your harvesting over a period of many weeks. Mine began to ripen in mid June and I still have lots which need several more weeks to ripen. As with any plant, it's best not to harvest when the plants are wet from rain or irrigation, since diseases spread more easily in those conditions. I like to harvest blueberries on a dry morning, before the sun gets too hot. I picked 10 cups yesterday (not counting the ones I ate!) Of course, it's hard to resist munching on a handful anytime I'm working in the gardens.

How to freeze
It's recommended not to wash the blueberries before freezing. My preferred method is to lay a big towel out and dump the berries onto it, spreading them in a single layer. If you've picked them with stems attached, rolling them around on the towel will make the stems drop off. The towel will absorb any moisture on the berries too. Some people like to freeze them in a single layer on a flat tray or pan to keep them from sticking together, but I haven't found this necessary. I measure 2 cups of berries into a freezer pint zip bag, shake to move them into the bottom corners, squeeze the excess air out, and seal the bag. I try to maneuver the berries around in the bag to distribute them evenly, then I stack the bags in the freezer. If I want to use them in the future for baking, I usually don't thaw - just take from the freezer, rinse and add them to the dry ingredients in the recipe. Frozen blueberries are fabulous in smoothies too.

Other fruits and berries I have tried or still grow have much fussier requirements than blueberries. If you are just venturing into gardening, I highly recommend you include blueberries in your plans. They can even be grown in containers, so get yours growing soon!