I friggin love blueberries.

I eat them like they are M&M’s.

There is absolutely nothing better than downing these by the handful this time of year. The problem is, I have been tremendously unsuccessful at trying to grow them myself – be it in the ground or in a container – and do not have the time to put in the effort to amend my soil as needed. So I rely on my local orchards for my blueberry fix.

My favorite local joint for fresh off the branch/vine fruit is Solebury Orchards in Solebury, PA. It is a quick trip over the bridge from New Jersey and it isn’t like some of the other chain-like orchards in the area. We visited over the 4th of July weekend in hunt of the blueberry:

As we entered the blueberry locale, I vowed to make it down each and every row so I could locate every perfectly ripe, blueberry:

The truth is, it seemed a bit early for a lot of the fruit so we had to choose wisely and really search the shrubs like true blueberry detectives:

While my daughter wouldn’t eat a blueberry if her life depended on it, my son seems to be a fan:

The grounds at Solebury Orchards are rustic and charming and a place you want to hang for a while:

The kids are obsessed with the cider doughnuts that are sold in the store right behind them and were barely patient enough to pose for this shot:

The only disappointment was that we were not allowed to pick any raspberries but we’ll be back soon to devour those as well:

We had two cartons full by the time we left and admittedly, some of the blueberries were not really ripe enough. That didn’t stop me from eating them:

Best of all, my wife (the Chef D’excellence that she is) made lemon blueberry pancakes the next morning and they were ridiculously good:

One of these years, I’ll put in the time and effort to grow my own blueberries, but for now, I’ll hit up Solebury Orchards and let them do all the hard work.

Cheers!
John