reading time: 10 min

So last weekend J, his mum and I actually went to a self-picking plantation / pick-your-own farm to gather blueberries for the very first time in my life! We've been wanting to do that for several years, and we finally got around to doing it. It was so much fun and very rewarding. I had gone strawberry picking with my friends a few times before, which was super fun but always took ages because so many of the strawberries were either unripe or already rotting. With blueberries it's so much faster! Within 30 or 45 minutes we collected a total of 4.5 kilos of summer's sapphire blue jewels.

Blueberries are a true local superfood and a powerhouse of antioxidants – they are even ranked number one in terms of their antioxidant benefits. Packed with vitamins A, C and E, blueberries also contain many B-vitamins as well as minerals, tannins, fibre, and anti-inflammatory anthocyanins, which slow down the aging process and even prevent cancer to a certain extent. They are really underrated, if you ask me. No need to get fancy açai berries. Just get blueberries instead!

In cooking, blueberries are commonly used for pies, cakes, jams, muffins, cookies, pancakes, sauces, syrups, juices, ice creams and crumbles. I like to eat mine in my oatmeal or cereal every morning and in a smoothie now and then.

Blueberries are not only popular in human cuisine though, but also an important food source for native and migrating birds, bears, and small mammals. They are one of the few naturally blue foods on earth! Cool, eh?

Where and How to Harvest Blueberries

Both the European blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), also known as bilberry or whortleberry, and the American blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), also known as blue huckleberry, are part of the low-growing deciduous shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, which also includes the bog bilberry, cranberry, lingonberry, and huckleberry. The plant is usually found in wooded or open areas with moist, nutrient-poor and acidic soils. You can find wild blueberries in sparse woods, heathland, moor landscapes, and even near lakes.

The bushes grow low to the ground, from 10-50 cm high. The small leaves are bright green, turning to red in autumn. They grow alternately on the stem, have a pointed oval shape, with fine serrations along the edge. Their flowers are yellowish white to reddish, bell-shaped and hanging.

There are two types of blueberries: wild and cultivated. While cultivated blueberries such as the American blueberry usually grow on high bushes and have white, green or translucent, mildly fragrant flesh, and grow in large bushes with the fruit in bunches, wild blueberries such as the European blueberry have dark red/purple, strongly fragrant flesh and red juice that turns blue in basic environments. They grow on low bushes in the heathland with smaller fruits that grow individually on the bushes and will stain hands, teeth and tongue deep blue or purple while eating. They also contain higher levels of antioxidants. Both wild and cultivated blueberries are rounded and dark blue or bluish-black on the outside.

The most common blueberry lookalikes include Oregon grape aka holly-leaved berberry (Mahonia aquifolium; the berries are edible, but the seeds are poisonous, so make sure to strain them!), pokeberries (Phytolacca americana; poisonous!), and several members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae; some species are toxic and dangerous, e. g. the deadly nightshade!), salal (Gaultheria shallon; edible) and buckthorn (e. g. alder buckthorn, Rhamnus frangula / Frangula alnus; slightly poisonous). To wrap up: Make sure you've got the right plant!

When harvesting blueberries, make sure not too pick the berries to soon. Wait until they are completely grey-blue and ripe – they should fall off right into your hand with no tugging.

Blueberries are sweetest two or three days after they turn dark blue, when the fruit is slightly soft to the touch. Berries with any blush of red are not ripe. Individual berries in a cluster do not ripen at the same time, so hand-pick every berry, removing only the ripest berries from the shrub. Gently "roll" the berries off the stem and into your palm. Place them in your bucket or basket until you have harvested all the blueberries you want – of course, leaving enough for the animals to feed and for the plant to recover! Also, don't forget to pop a few in your mouth while picking them ... Important taste testing, haha!

Depending on where you live, blueberry season can be anywhere from June through September. The harvesting peak is usually in July and mid-August.

inspired by Oh My Goodness Chocolate Desserts

Preparation time: 1 h 30 mins (+ 2 hours cooling time)
Main ingredients: blueberries, oats, spelt flour, margarine, sugar
difficulty level: easy
yields: 10 slices (26 cm- or 10-inch springform pan)
suitable for: vegan, lactose-free, wheat-free, yeast-free

Ingredients

Crumble Cake:
3/4 cup (180 g) vegan butter or margarine, chilled
3/4 cup cup (140 g) raw cane sugar or brown sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped or 1 tsp vanilla essence
(optional) zest of 1 organic lemon
2 cups (180 g) rolled oats
1 1/2 cups (180 g) spelt flour (type 630) *
pinch of salt

Cheesecake Filling:
2 cups (500 g) plain vegan quark (you can drain your own homemade soy yogurt; or sub silken-firm tofu; my vegan quark packet contained 400 g, so I also added 100 g of vegan vanilla quark)
1 cup (120 g) vegan cream cheese
1/2 cup (120 g) vegan butter or margarine, softened
1/2 + 1/8 cup (120 g) cane sugar
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (50 g) cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla essence
(optional) juice of 1 organic lemon

3 cups (400 g) blueberries, fresh or frozen **

* For a gluten-free cake, use a gluten-free flour blend instead.

** You can also replace the blueberries in this recipe with raspberries, blackberries, cherries, or a few thickly slices peaches or apricots instead, depending on what is in season right now where you live. (I made an autumnal crumble cake with apples and pears as well as a late summer plum crumble cake a few years ago).

 
To assemble:

Pour half of the cheesecake mixture in the chilled crust. Gently tap the pan a few times on your work surface to remove any air bubbles. Scatter about 1 cup of blueberries over the filling. Spread remaining cheesecake mixture on top. Sprinkle with remaining blueberries as well as the streusel topping.
 
Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes. If the top has started to brown too much, cover the top with baking paper or aluminium foil. Bake for further 30 minutes.

After a total baking time of about 50 minutes, turn off the oven and leave the cake inside for another 5–10 minutes. This prevents the cheesecake filling from cracking.

Remove and transfer the pan to a wire rack. Let cool for about 15 minutes. Remove the sides from the springform pan and slide the cake onto the rack, allowing it to fully cool.

The cake may still appear a bit wobbly after baking, but it will firm up while cooling! For best results, place the cake in the fridge as soon as it has cooled down to room temperature to set for 2 hours or even overnight before serving.

Cut and serve. Enjoy!

Any leftover cake should keep for up to 4 days covered in the fridge. Ours was gone within 10 minutes so I can't really tell, hehe.

TIPS:

- This cake has tons of texture and flavour all by itself, and it doesn’t really need a glaze, but if you like it a little more sweet, you could make a glaze by combining 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 2-3 tsp non-dairy milk in a small bowl. Drizzle the glaze over the crumb cake, or opt for a simple dusting of powdered sugar instead.

- To make this delicious cheesecake crumb cake for a larger crowd, double the recipe and bake on a sheet.
- This recipe also works with frozen berries. Just make sure not to under-bake the cake as frozen berries can add some extra moisture.
- Covered and stored in the fridge overnight, this cake gets firms up nicely. Just remember to take it out of the fridge in good time before serving it – it tastes best at room temperature.
- If you've bought, harvested or wildcrafted too many blueberries to eat over the course of two or three days, it's best to freeze them. Simply rinse them under running water with a strainer to remove any stems and debris. Shake off any excess water and spread the blueberries on a tray to dry. Don't put too many berries on the tray – they should be spread in one layer, and not lie on top of each other. Place the tray into the freezer for 1 to 2 hours. Then transfer the blueberries into a sealable containers and freeze properly.

Here's also a few pictures of J's cousin's chickens and rooster :) They are so cute! I really want to have a small flock of backyard chickens some day, too. Once a country girl, always a country girl ...

Looking for more vegan & wheat-free dessert recipes? Check out some of my favourites:

Vegan Strawberry Streusel Coffee Cake

Vegan German Plum Crumble Cake

Vegan Almond Sponge Cake with Berries & Cream

  reading time: 2 min

 reading time: 4 min

In the morning, as they were beginning to pack their slender goods, Elves that could speak their tongue came to them and brought them many gifts of food and clothing for the journey. The food was mostly in the form of very thin cakes, made of meal that was baked a light brown on the outside, and inside was the colour of cream.
(...)
»Eat little at a time, and only at need. For these things are given to serve you when all else fails. The cakes will keep sweet for many many days, if they are unbroken and left in their leaf-wrappings, as we have brought them. One will keep a traveler on his feet for a day of long labour, even if he be one of the tall men of Minas Tirith.«

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

I fell in love with J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth when I first read The Lord of the Rings at the age of twelve. Well, actually my dad read the entire epic to me because I wasn't grown-up enough to read it on my own. He had also read The Hobbit to me when I was even younger, perhaps eight or nine, and while I had enjoyed that, I didn't become as obsessed with it as I became with LOTR!

Lembas, also called "waybread", is a crisp and crumbly, pocket-sized biscuit-like bread or cake made by the Elves that stays fresh and "sweet" for months when wrapped in leaves from the Mallorn tree that grows in Lothlorien. It is supposed to be very strengthening, and "one small bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man". According to the Elves of Lorien, it is similar to cram, a hardtrack sort of biscuit made by the men of Dale, but way more pleasant, and it is even better than Beorn's honey cakes. It's basically an extremely nutritious energy bar!

By the way, Tolkien himself has said that lembas contains honey and the "fruit of the Mallorn tree", which was described as "a nut with a silver shale" in Unfinished Tales. I'm choosing to interpret that as almonds.

Legolas explaining lembas to the fellowship. (source)

To be exact, lembas isn't really Legolas' signature dish, but was rather provided to the Fellowship by the Lady Galadriel and the Elves of Lothlorien. But in the movie adaptation Legolas is the one explaining lembas to his friends, and it sounded catchier than "Elvish Lembas" or "Galadriel's Lembas", so... yeah, I don't have any real excuses for this ;-)

My lembas waybread is nice and buttery, like a soft biscuit or shortbread cookie, just a little bit sweet, and slightly salty and aromatic, with a lovely hint of rosemary. I doubt that one bite will satisfy me or my fiancé for an entire day as the Elves claimed, but it’ll certainly satisfy your cravings for a snack!

LEGOLAS' VEGAN LEMBAS

Preparation time: 60 mins
Main ingredients: spelt flour, almond milk, advocaat / eggnog
difficulty level: easy
makes: 10 lembas cakes
suitable for: vegan, lactose-free, soy-free

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (220 g) light wheat or spelt flour (type 630)
1/4 cup (30 g) oat flour
1/4 cup (25 g) almond meal (or swap for another nut flour such as hazelnut, chestnut, or acorn)
1/2 (55 g) cup raw cane sugar (or swap for 1/4 cup honey or golden syrup)
1 cup (200 g) vegan butter or margarine
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom, ground
1 tsp of dried rosemary, finely chopped (or swap for dried thyme)
 
also
large collard leaves and twine (for wrapping the lembas)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180 °C / 350 °F.

In a mixing bowl, beat together vegan butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the remaining ingredients, and whisk, using an electric whisk with a dough hook.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and roll out about 1/2 inch thick. Add more flour if required.

Slice the dough into squares (about 3 inches) and transfer to a parchment lined baking tray. You can keep the lembas fairly close together since these are not going to spread.

Lightly score each square from corner to corner with a butter knife to look like an X (make sure not to cut all the way through the dough).

Bake for 20-35 minutes, or until the corners start to turn a light golden colour.

Let cool completely on a wire rack (it will still be soft when it's out of the oven) before storing in an airtight container. To make it extra cute, use some collard leaves (or banana leaves) to wrap your little breads in like the Elvish Mallorn leaves. Secure with twine.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

There you have your lembas to sustain you on your journey through Middle Earth – or on your next hiking trip through the mountains! Now grab your packs, we've got a Ring to destroy!

NOTE:
- If you prefer a more firm lembas, only use 1/2 cup of vegan butter and swap almond meal for regular flour. You could also add more flour in general,  up to 2 cups in total. In this case you may need to add some non-dairy milk such as almond milk or even coconut milk (or use honey/syrup instead of sugar) if the dough is too dry.

Looking for more nerdy recipes? Check out some of my other literature-inspired creations:

Bilbo's Seed Cake (vegan)

Sansa's Lemon Cakes (vegan)

♥

Maisy