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Blueberry pancakes showcase garden gems

Recipe: Blueberry sour cream pancakes with homegrown blueberries

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAY 22, 2022

Blueberry pancakes on a plate — These pancakes feature homegrown blueberries.
(Photos by Debbie Arrington)

My four blueberry plants have finally started bearing enough fruit to actually make something!

Anyone who has tried to grow blueberries in Sacramento understands the high cost of this spring fruit.

Every blueberry is like a precious little gem, tickled off of clusters one by one by hand. That allows the green berries more time to mature, but also means the plants need to be monitored almost daily. (Otherwise, birds may take all the ripe ones.)

Usually, my blueberries get eaten immediately in the garden; with only one or two ripe ones a day, why not? But this spring, my Sunshine Blue bush produced beautiful, large blueberries that were too numerous to just nibble. When my harvest measured 1 cup, it was time for blueberry pancakes.

Sour cream gives these thick pancakes a rich, soft texture that’s a perfect cushion for the delicate blueberries. They’re sweet enough that syrup is optional (but really good).

Blueberry sour cream pancakes

Makes 7 to 8 (5-inch) pancakes

Blueberry bush — Blueberries ripen on a Sunshine Blue bush.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sour cream
¼ cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup blueberries, washed with any stems removed
Butter for grill

Instructions:

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a smaller bowl, mix together sour cream and milk. Add egg.

Flip the pancakes when small bubbles

start to appear on the surface.

Blend sour cream mixture with dry ingredients just until combined. Add oil or melted butter, then vanilla. It will be a thick batter but still can be poured from a spoon; add a little more milk if needed.

Pick over blueberries to remove any stems. Gently fold blueberries into batter.

Heat pancake grill or frying pan to medium. Melt butter to cover the cooking surface. Ladle batter onto grill, allowing about ¼ cup of batter per pancake. Each pancake will expand; space them well apart.

Cook until little bubbles start to appear on the surface of each pancake, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook until done, about 2 more minutes. Pancakes should be golden on each side.

Serve immediately with more butter and syrup or dusted with powdered sugar, if desired.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes gardening Sacramento berries cooking breakfast backyard produce produce management farm to fork blueberries

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Food in My Back Yard Series

May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

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April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

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Garden Checklist for week of May 11

Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.

* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.

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