BLUEBERRY SCONE RECIPE

So many customers have requested this recipe, I decided to put it on the website....

This recipe came from my cousin, Shannah, who got it from her sister Julie. It fast became a favorite. The original recipe calls for white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. My friend, Meg, has made them with dark chocolate chunks and dried cherries. We, of course, make them with blueberries – fresh or frozen – and white chocolate chips. We also like this recipe with just white chocolate chips – no fruit – for the shortcake part of strawberry shortcake.

2 cups flour

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

6 Tablespoons butter

1 egg slightly beaten

3/4-1 cup Buttermilk

½ cup white chocolate chips

½ cup blueberries – fresh or frozen

Combine the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender or fork mix the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles small peas. In a one cup measure cup, whisk the egg. Add the buttermilk to the 1 cup line on measure cup. Mix slightly. Add to the dry crumble ingredients and add the blueberries and the white chocolate chips. Mix well.

Drop onto a baking sheet in mounds. Bake at 400 degrees for 14-16 minutes.

Enjoy!

Northern Highbush Blueberry

Red Canoe Farms produces eight varieties of northern highbush blueberries. In April 2010, we planted 4600 bushes with the help of many volunteers. We believed the local interest in this amazingly healthy fruit was high and that our community would welcome a friendly farm that offered flavorful blueberries.

Soil and climate conditions are great here in the foothills of the Purcell Trench. Rich volcanic deposits from geologic ages, combined with gravelly remains of large scale flooding from Lake Missoula, have created a loamy, well-drained environment for blueberries.

Northern highbush blueberries are cultivated for northern climates. They require several hundred hours of temperatures under 45 degrees to be productive in summer. They require well-drained, acidic soil, lots of water and sunshine. Red Canoe Farms feature eight varieties of highbush blueberries: Duke, Patriot, Spartan, Draper, Bluegold, Bluecrop, Chandler and Liberty.

Duke (Rows 1-5) produces a large light blue berry early in the season. These berries are clustered closely, and have a mild sweet flavor.

Patriot (Rows 6-10) is a smaller bush but its berries pack a large flavor. They bear early-season, along with the Dukes, and are a freezer favorite with our early customers. "Get lots of them and get them early so we have berries for the winter," is what we hear.

Spartan (Rows 11-15)--Large and sweet, a favorite with many of our customers.

Draper (Rows 16-21) "Crisp." "Crunchy." This is what we hear about this variety. It seems to have a higher fiber content and a tighter surface tension. A ripe one squirts flavor into your mouth.

Bluegold (Rows 22-25) has been described as "delicately sweet." Two of our customers remarked this berry has "overtones of basil." Bluegold is a distinctively flavored berry--a flavor open to interpretation by anyone who tries it.

Bluecrop (Rows 26-28) is the most widely planted blueberry in the United States. Perhaps that's why it's flavor is termed "classic."

Chandler (Rows 29-34) is the world's largest blueberry. I picked one recently and compared it to a quarter. The Chandler was larger than the quarter. These berries are awesome for just grabbing a handful out of a bowl and putting them in your mouth. They're full and sweet. And popular. Some of our customers come out here only for the Chandlers.

Liberty (Rows 35-40) is full-flavored--sweet but definitely possessing a "zanginess" to it. Some of our customers have said that these berries lean toward huckleberries in flavor. My recommendation: mix these with Chandlers for a great taste experience.

Red Canoe Farms FAQ's

Do you spray your bushes?

We do not spray our berries with pesticides, insecticides, etc.

Every summer we take leaf samples and send them in to a lab at the University of Idaho. Based on the results, we do spray our bushes in the fall and early spring with recommended nutrients. For example, test results last year indicated the plants were low on Calcium and Manganese. So we sprayed applications of those nutrients, in addition to our regular applications of Boron and Copper.

We try to keep the floor as clean of weeds as possible by hiring kids to pull weeds, and by adding mulch to the rows every year or two. We try not to stress about having weeds around!

Why do your berries taste so good?

Our blueberries are tasty for a couple reasons. 1) We chose berries developed for flavor rather than berries developed for machine harvest. 2) Based on what we've read, flavorful food comes from high nutrient density. Nutrient density comes from the soil. Based on analysis by Ward Labs in Nebraska, the volume of fungi and bacteria in our soil's microbiome is off-the-charts high. The diversity of this biome is very high.

Do you ever sell your bushes?

We do not sell our bushes.

Every few years we order new bushes from Fall Creek Nursery in Oregon and sell them. If you would like to get on the list for bushes, please give us a call.

How should I be pruning my bushes at home?

Please watch our website for our spring pruning class. This class will show you how we prune, and how we think about pruning, and will also give you hands on experience and coaching through the pruning process.

What is the best way to plant blueberry bushes?

Please watch our website for our spring blueberry planting class. This class will review the soil and environmental conditions best for blueberries and explain the process we used for planting the Red Canoe Farms bushes. Participants will leave with nutrient starter packs and confidence!