August in Canada is wild blueberry season. Glorious, delectable little indigo morsels…
When I was a child, my family spent summer vacations at my grandparents’ farm in northern Minnesota. Sometimes we would take a road trip into the backwoods of Ontario and go wild blueberry picking.
Picking blueberries in Canada with my sister and grandmother. That's me on the left.
The goal was to get the berries into buckets so we could take them home, but as you can imagine, most of them went straight into my mouth. Those that did make it into the buckets were destined for home-made wild blueberry pie, pancakes, muffins, jams, and my personal favorite: vanilla ice cream topped with wild blueberries for breakfast.
No place else but Grandma’s can one enjoy such a delicacy as ice cream and wild blueberries for breakfast. When you let the ice cream start to melt, you can swirl the berries round and round with your spoon, making fabulous tie-dye patterns until the creamy white finally gives way to a solid brilliant purple.
Even though wild blueberry season is winding to a close, thanks to the wonders of flash freezers anybody can enjoy delicious wild blueberries in any place, any time of the year.
Here’s one of my favorite ways to enjoy wild blueberries today: in gluten-free blueberry buckwheat pancakes. If you don’t have wild blueberries, you can still make the pancakes with cultivated blueberries. Although I highly recommend the wild blueberries if they are available.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup each of buckwheat flour, garbanzo bean flour, sorghum flour, & tapioca flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
- 1/4 cup dates, pitted & chopped
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk of your choice)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, plus extra for pan (or mild cooking oil of your choice)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup wild blueberries, thawed if frozen (or cultivated blueberries)
Instructions
- Put the chopped dates in a small saucepan with 1/2 cup of the almond milk over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Simmer gently for one minute, then turn the heat off, cover, and let the dates soak for 5 minutes.
- While the dates are soaking, sift the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together into a large bowl. Stir in the flaxseed meal.
- Pour the hot date-almond milk mixture into a blender, add the tablespoon of coconut oil, and blend until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup almond milk and the applesauce, and blend until smooth.
- Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Gently fold in the blueberries. (Note the two batters below. The batter on the left has partially thawed berries. The blueberries in the batter on the right are completely thawed. Not only will your batter look better with completely thawed blueberries, the pancakes will be much easier to cook as well!)
- Heat a nonstick griddle or pan, add a little oil and spoon a scant 1/4 cup of batter into the pan. Spread it around slightly to make a circle about 3 inches wide. Repeat several more times to fill the pan.
- Cook for a couple minutes until bubble pop on the surface of the pancakes and the edges turn slightly brown. Flip the pancakes over and cook about one minute longer until the other side is done. You can press your finger gently on the top of the pancake at this point. If it feels like the inside is still mushy it's not done yet. Remove from the pan when cooked and serve while still warm.
- Repeat steps #5 and #6 until all the batter is cooked.
- Garnish as desired and enjoy!
Size comparison of cultivated blueberries (top left) and wild blueberries (bottom right)
Top 5 reasons why I {heart} wild blueberries
5. Truly wild blueberries are naturally organic.
4. They are sturdier than cultivated blueberries, and don’t smash easily in baking.
3. Wild blueberries are not only full of antioxidants, they’re cute, too. 
2. More blueberries per cup means more blueberry goodness in each bite.
1. Sweet and tangy, wild blueberries have a power-packed flavor explosion.
What are your favorite ways to enjoy blueberries?
Picture looks far better than viewing the print directly.
We forwarded your e-mail to several, including Freida.
Thanks.
Love the photo, thanks!
What a fun photo of you, your sister, and your grandmother. I’m sure you have wonderful memories of that time. I have an Aunt and Uncle in Maine, and I remember visiting them as a kids and picking blueberries. My aunt made the most fabulous pies, muffins and cobblers with them. Your pancakes look delicious too-will definitely have to try them. Thanks so much for the b-day wishes for my daughter
Memories like that are the best!