July is National Blueberry Month, and New Jersey is the perfect place to celebrate—blueberries are even the official state fruit. New Jersey is also one of the largest producers of blueberries, and the first cultivation of blueberries took place here in the early 1900s.
Here are five fun ways to celebrate all things blueberry with your kids:
1. New Jersey produces over 52 million pounds of blueberries every year. Do your part for the harvest, and go blueberry picking with your kids. Here's a list of local NJ places.
2. Make a blueberry kabob. Teach a little math at the same time and have your kids count out the blueberries as they put them on the stick, or have older children make patterns with other fruits (raspberries and cut melon work well, as do sliced bananas).
3. Freeze blueberries for a perfectly healthy, and delicious, snack. If you layer the berries in a container separated by sheets of wax paper, they won't clump together. The wax paper divisions also make it easy to remove just one blueberry layer when you want to defrost just a few berries at a time.
4. Read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McClosky. When you're done, use your own pails, pots, and pans to see if you can add blueberries to recreate the memorable Kerplink! Kerplank! Kerplunk! sounds from the story.
5. Have fun drawing blueberries, and coloring them in with crayons or markers, or adding blue sequin embellishments. Here is a fun coloring page that highlights the "royal crown" on each blueberry. There are also printable coloring pages of blueberry plants, and I also like this one of a freshly picked pint.
Have other ways to celebrate our New Jersey State fruit? Please share them here, and don't forget to check out all our blueberry recipes, with delicious ideas such as Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins with Streusel Topping.
