Being from Michigan we have a huge Blueberry industry. Blueberries are actually native to Michigan and in 2012 we harvested 19,700 acres of blueberries! That means Michigan produced 87 million pounds of blueberries with 49 million pounds of those going into the fresh market. All of those blueberries make Michigan the top producer of blueberries followed by Oregon, Washington, Georgia, New Jersey, California, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Indiana. These 10 states comprise 98% of the nation’s blueberry production even though 38 states produce blueberries.
Now that you know more about blueberries, I am going to share with you one of my favorite recipes. My mom used to make this Blueberry Crisp and it is one of my favorite desserts. I love the sweet crumble topping mixed with the tartness of the blueberries. Throw some vanilla ice cream on top of it when it is still warm from the oven and you have heaven. Just a tidbit, blueberries are sooooo very easy to freeze so this is a great recipe to break out in the winter time! To freeze blueberries you just wash them up really good, put them in a freezer bag and you put them in your deep freeze. I freeze them in 1 cup amounts so I know exactly how many bags I need.
Without any further ado, please welcome the recipe for Blueberry Crisp.
- 6 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice, optional finely grated zest from a lemon
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Topping
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 10 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and butter a 9x13 glass baking dish.
- Mix the blueberries, sugar, lemon, zest and flour. Set aside.
- Add the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter to a food processor. Pulse repeatedly for 2-3 seconds at a time until the mixture is clumpy.
- Transfer the berries to the baking dish. Spread the topping evenly over and bake for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.
- Enjoy with fresh vanilla ice cream!
- You can mix the blueberries with other fruits. I have done 3 cups of blueberries and 3 cups of peaches before among other fruits.
- If you use frozen berries your fruit mixture might be a little more runny. That is totally normal and nothing to be alarmed about. It takes just as good!
Last year, one of my old coworkers made a trip to MI for blueberries and came home with a carload. I bought and froze almost the whole 5 lbs that I had her get for me, wishing that I had more! They were SO GOOD. I made several crisps and an amazing batch of blueberry-lemon butter! And now I’m hungry…. Later pal, have a great day!
I honestly am biased but I think Michigan has the best blueberries 🙂 Blueberries are my favorite fruit to freeze because they are so easy!