By Chris Underwood
June 16, 2025 – The plan last weekend was to make cobbler, but I couldn’t control myself. A taste of one berry turns into two empty pints faster than I can wipe the juice from my chin. Blueberry season lasts only two months, from mid-May to mid-July, and my frenzied consumption of these indigo-hued orbs of flavor hinders my dessert baking and experimentation into the savory sauces for which they are surprisingly well-suited.
On our phone call, I had to admit my lack of self-control to my grandma. I would get more berries and bring her a treat next weekend.
The producer of the blueberries, Forrest Hardage, proudly grins when I tell him of grandma’s feigned admonishment.
Forrest has been involved in farming since he was seven years old in Florida, when his dad took him on weekend camping trips to land that had just been cleared for planting. He has only recently found satisfaction with his own crop on his own land in Alma, about an hour and a half northwest of Brunswick.
The town is known as the “blueberry capital of Georgia,” but Forrest works his land differently than most in the area. There are no nets covering the rows of berry plants, and he only occasionally sprays his plants with naturally derived organic insecticides. Both of those inputs cost more money than a burgeoning, relatively small farm like Forrest’s Ten Mile Creek Farm can justify spending.
Ten Mile Creek Farm Facebook Page>
Instead, Forrest uses carnivorous insects like ladybugs and parasitoid wasps—smaller and browner than the angry, copper red stingers—to control the aphids and terrapin scale that cause the most blight to the fruit. Loudspeakers placed throughout the fields periodically emit hawk calls, warding off the smaller birds that love to graze on the fruit.
Tended to in this minimally invasive way, blueberry bushes will remain healthy and produce fruit for up to fifty years. Commercial, chemically derived insecticides might increase a field’s yield over one or two harvesting seasons, but they will degrade the plants, which will then need to be ripped out of the soil and replaced. Imitating nature, Forrest believes, yields the most fruit with the least disturbance of the earth.
Forrest puts the two pints in my backpack and I go off to get my other groceries. On my way back home, he asks, “Any more?” He knows me too well. One more container goes into my pack.
This fruit is fleeting and will soon be gone. Cook with it, and graze on it, while you can.
Blueberry Bowl with Oat Crumble
Ingredients
2 pints blueberries
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
4 thumb sized pieces ginger, sliced
1 cup basil leaves torn
1 cup plain yogurt
zest of 3 limes
salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter, not terribly cold, still firm, sliced a few times
1 tsp allspice, ground
Method
- Combine the lime zest and yogurt. Refrigerate overnight
- Combine the water, sugar, ginger, and basil in a saucepan. Put over medium heat and stir occasionally for 30 minutes. Strain out the ginger and basil.
- Cook the blueberries in the syrup over medium low heat for five minutes, until slightly darkened. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a blender. Don’t blend yet.
- While the syrup cools, make the oat crumble. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, and a couple pinches of salt in a mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter into this mixture. Dump onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
- Put 1 cup of the cooled syrup into the blender with the berries. Buzz. Save the remaining syrup for use in mocktails or on French toast.
- Transfer blended berries to a bowl and stir in the lime zest yogurt.
- Put berry-yogurt mixture into serving bowls. Top with more yogurt and sprinkle with oat crumble. Scatter basil leaves around if desired. Save remaining oat crumble. Use it to top muffins, pies, ice cream, whatever you like.
About the author
Chris Underwood is a Fayette County native who once happened upon a used copy of Kitchen Confidential while picking up his 9th grade summer reading at the Omega Bookstore. He’s been fascinated with food and the people who grow and cook it ever since. On Saturday’s, he’ll probably be at the Forsyth Farmer’s Market buying fresh ingredients for delicious meals he prepares and posts to his Facebook page.
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