Blueberries!

It's blueberry season in Kotzebue. Picking is even easier than in Eagle River - all you have to do is drive a mile or two out of town and walk out onto the tundra. I've checked out a couple of different spots but the one I found at about 9:45pm today when I trying to head back to the car was by far the best. These might be the biggest tundra blueberries I've ever seen.

We've been having incredible weather in Kotzebue for the last month. I read an article in the ADN yesterday about how Alaskans feel guilty not getting outside when it's sunny and as a result, nice weather becomes exhausting because we feel that every day might be the last sunny day until next summer. So tonight, when I was contemplating blowing off berry picking to lay in bed and read, I checked for forecast and saw rain for the day after tomorrow. I grabbed my berry container and ran out the door like there was a ticking time bomb on my blueberries. It was well-worth it. 

Home for a week!

Blueberry picking at Mile High Pass

I'm home again for a break and it is a good time of year to be home. The weather is still nice and the berries are ripe! The weather was supposed to be rainy, however, considering Kotzebue consistently has temps in the low 40's and 20+ mph winds, a drizzly 60 degrees didn't sound all that bad. And it hasn't been, mostly it hasn't even rained.

It is shaping up to be a very good blueberry year in the Anchorage area. It seems early, but I just looked back at our blog posts from last year and we started picking blueberries on August 9 last year, so I guess we aren't really much earlier this year. The berries might just be bigger and better this year though.

I also wanted to try fireweed blossom jelly this year after hearing about it from a friend in Kotzebue. I was bummed to see when I got home that the fireweed down low is almost over, but we did find some up high at Mile High Pass. I haven't really tasted the fireweed jelly yet, but it sure turned out pretty!

Yesterday we biked most of the length of Eklutna Lake which I've never done before. Such a beautiful day!