Louisiana Blueberries (photo by Kenn Stearns)

Botanists believe blueberries have been growing in North America for 13,000 years. Colonists found two varieties of blueberries growing wild. The sweetest blueberries I’ve ever had were from the Poconos Mountains, a favorite Northeastern Pennsylvania playground, where they grow wild. I’ve never had a cultivated blueberry that was as sweet as those all tiny natural beauties – seems like it took all day to fill a jar.

But when you live in the south it’s not always easy to hit mountains in the Northeast so we did the next best thing: we went to Louisiana and visited a self-pick place my parents knew about. The kids had a blast and the next morning we shared a fine stack of blueberry pancakes.