August is for Blueberries

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.”  Tuck Everlasting,  Natalie Babbitt, 1975

A yearly quote of mine from a very favorite little book, reread often since I discovered it in years ago in the library of the elementary school where I taught.

August is one of the months in Downeast Maine for the wild, low bush blueberry harvest. We bought some to bring home, they're fragile, often we have to freeze them if we don't use them quickly enough.  We've had these in yogurt for breakfast, but one of our favorite ways to enjoy them is in this simple Blueberry Tea Cake. I've included my mother's recipe card. I'm not much of a baker, more of a cook, but I love making this cake.


" Wild blueberries are harvested from late July, August, to early September in Maine. Harvesting is still mainly by hand rake- a close-tined special RAKE invented about 112 years ago by a local Downeaster, Abijah Tabbutt and modified in minor variations since then."  maine.gov


Wild Blueberries (a great short video)


For the Record,
This day came very hot , not to my liking. 

All hands missing the peace of vacation.