Tifton Blog

As a 4-year-old, skinny, bowl cut, dirty, us and the neighborhood kids were always outside in the summertime. My mom would send us to pick blueberries up the road to a neighbors house. Especially when it was hot outside we felt as if this was more of a chore than anything. My mother would accompany us, typically talk to the adults while we did all the “work”. I am almost positive that we ate more than we picked, but y’all, it was hot. Coming home with buckets of blueberries seemed to mean something to my mother, yet as a 4-year-old, it meant we were having muffins that next morning.

In 2019, I had that daughter. She is just like her mama, the skinny, bowl cut, and dirty daughter. We recently took her to her first trip to Berry Good Farms here in Tifton. As she is just shy of 4, she needed a little assistance. As she picked her first berries, stuck them in her mouth, I started to feel what my mother must have felt. She doesn’t see it as work quite yet, just a sweet treat, stained shirt, and a dirty, smiling face. She may not remember it quite yet, but I will. After a long week of work, you may not want to take your car out of the garage, I didn’t that day. I urge you to make those muffins and memories. We promise that it will be berry important one day. Thank you Berry Good Farms for the memories that we can all take from this "sweet" place. 

Pick your berries and let's get to cooking! 

YOU WILL NEED

• 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup of  granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for muffin tops
• 1/4 of teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/3 cup of neutral-flavored oil; canola or vegtable will do! 
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 ½ teaspoons of  good vanilla extract
•  1 cup of FRESH Blueberries

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. For big-topped muffins, line 8 standard-size muffin cups with paper liners. For standard-size muffins line 10 muffin cups. Fill the remaining cups with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to help the muffins bake evenly.

PREPARE OVEN AND MUFFIN CUPS

• Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
• Add oil to a measuring jug that holds at least 1 cup. Add the egg then fill the jug to the 1-cup line with milk (1/3 to 1/2 cup milk). Add vanilla and whisk to combine.
• Add milk mixture to the bowl with dry ingredients then use a fork to combine. Do not over mix. (The muffin batter will be quite thick — see note below for more details). Fold in the blueberries.

MAKE BATTER

• Divide the batter between muffin cups. (If making big-topped muffins, the batter will come to the tops of the paper liners). Sprinkle a little sugar on top of each muffin.
• Bake muffins 15 to 20 minutes or until tops are no longer wet and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out with crumbs, not wet batter. Transfer to a cooling rack.
• Enjoy making those memories!