FAIRHOPE — During the next few weeks, Fairhopers have the chance to put their hands on one of the most powerful, healthful tiny packages in the world.

These indigo pellets can handily kill polio virus as easily as stew in butter and sugar for a tasty pie. And there’s no limit to the ailments their alchemy may combat, scientists and farmers agree.

Behold the Baldwin County blueberry.

It’s pick-your-own time in the Fairhope area and Bee Natural Farm on Baldwin County Road 44 is bustling with a harvest crowd that includes its 65 co-op member families and many guests, who enjoy the easy-going honor system and collecting berries from the briar-free fruit bushes.

Bee Natural owners, Phil Strniste and Gwen Snyder, planted some six varieties of native Southeastern blueberries 18 years ago. The 250-plus bushes today stand about 7 feet high and will likely yield well through the end of June, Strniste forecasts.

The botanical grand-daddy of Bee Natural’s varieties is “Rabbit Eye,” and the five rows include its varieties, named “Chaucer,” “Bonita,” “Brightwell,” “Climax,” “Powder Blue” and “Tiff Blue.”

A sampling from the many bushes gives the blueberry novice or connoisseur a range of flavors from lemony, bright berries to mild, sweet and fatter specimens.

Decidedly meditative, blueberry picking is one of the most pleasant food gathering tasks Mother Nature designed, fans say.

Unlike most vegetables, you don’t have to bend in half or kneel to harvest these goodies.

No briars, like the armor of blackberries and raspberries. You can pick ‘em in multiples, with a little wrist action and thumb prowess that loosens four and five from a cluster at once.

Meditative is a fine way to describe a walk through the rows, where shade finds you and the hunt for the bluest bundles is addictive. Little ones have lots of fun with their mothers, too, playing hide and seek among the “sticks” (an old-fashioned term for blueberry bushes) and learning the almost black hue or frosted cast that determines ripeness.

Pickers plunk their berries in buckets they hang about their necks. Strniste and Snyder provide them in a covered gazebo area on the grassy property. Contact owners at 928-4311.

Each picker gets to cinch a plastic bag liner in a bucket with a fat rubber band, then head out to the field.

When the picking’s done, you simply remove the bag, hang it on a rustic scale there, and calculate your fee at a grocery store-beating $2 per pound.

owners at 928-4311.

Each picker gets to cinch a plastic bag liner in a bucket with a fat rubber band, then head out to the field.

When the picking’s done, you simply remove the bag, hang it on a rustic scale there, and calculate your fee at a grocery store-beating $2 per pound.

USING BLUEBERRIES

Once you get your blueberries home, there are plenty of ways to save and cook them, experts concur.

Look to your local extension agent for assistance and instructions. Amelia McGrew, regional extension agent for food safety, preparation and preservation for Baldwin County, has lots of resources to share and may be reached for advice on canning and freezing your berries, as well as a store-house of recipes, at (251) 574-8445.

“We have been eating the blueberry cobbler,” she said of her office staff. “The kind with the good biscuit-type crust.”

Also in Fairhope is Lyrene Flower Farm where blueberries abound for energetic pickers, or those who like to buy pre-picked baskets.

Open from 8 a.m to noon, except on Sundays, the farmers sell their crop for $1.25 per pound for pick-your-own, or $2 per pound for ready to ring up. Phone 928-0925.

Longtime Lyrene friend Ann Lake picked her first blueberries a few years ago.

“You go out there, and you’re all alone, and it’s nice to pick something that tastes so good,” she said.

“Blueberry cobbler is pretty good, but I like to make jams and jellies out of anything I can get my hands on.”

In Elberta, Laurel Hixson is enjoying her blueberry season amid 1,200 bushes of “Climax” variety fruit.

Her Hillcrest Farms sees pickers from 6 a.m. until dark, seven days a week, and she expects to have berries through mid-July. Reach the farm at (251) 962-2500.

“It’s a great year,” she said, describing her customer base as mostly retirees during the week and families over weekends.

“Most of the mamas have to work these days, she remarked of the decline in mothers and children as weekday customers. Her berries go for $1 per pound pick-your-own or $3 per pound, pre-picked.

With plants that are 28 years old, Mrs. Hixson has created a grove that is the gathering place for so many old friends and acquaintances, she says.

“People keep coming back, and I get to see their children grow up. I even occasionally commiserate about a lost spouse. It’s essentially a family reunion of sorts for me.”

Her clients enjoy the solitude of the pick, she said.

“The people who come in the evening are frequently by themselves,” said Hixson, who also enjoys the meditation of picking.

When it comes to cooking, “our family has always enjoyed a blueberry cake I’ve been making for 40 years,” Hixson said, adding, “The other thing I like to do in the winter — I’ll mix apples and pears with blueberries for a pie filling. It makes them turn pink, and it’s just lovely.”

Recipes

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup sugar

1 large egg, beaten

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup shortening, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup fresh blueberries

Preparation

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in mixing bowl.

Add egg, milk, shortening and vanilla extract, mix only until all ingredients are blended, about 28 strokes. Stir in dry, washed blueberries. Drop batter into well-greased, lightly floured muffin pans, filling them three-fourths full.

Bake in a pre-heated moderate oven (375 degrees F) for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot. Make 12 to 14 muffins.

Blueberry Pound Cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups flour divided

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 pint fresh blueberries frozen, thawed

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Sift two cups flour, salt and baking powder together. Add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture and beat. Dredge berries in remaining flour. Gently fold floured berries into the batter.

Grease and dust a tube pan with confectioner’s sugar or flour; pour batter into it. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until it tests done.

Comment: During baking, the blueberries may sink to the bottom because the batter may not be heavy enough to suspend the berries. Some people recommend lightly crushing the berries after dusting them with flour to slow the sinking, but then you may get the blueberry color all over the cake batter. If this is a problem for you, you may want to use your regular pound cake recipe and cover with blueberry sauce

Recipes courtesy of Amelia J. McGrew, regional extension agent, Food Safety, Preparation & Preservation, Alabama Cooperative Extension. mcgreaj@auburn.edu.