Last weekend we climbed a mountain. For a better-trained person that would have been a short enjoyable walk in the morning pristine air, for me it was quite an adventure.

Fulvia and Niccolò, Tommaso’s family friends, invited us to spend a weekend in their cosy house in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, near Abetone.

There’s nothing better than being cuddled in the mountains with home-made food, fresh air, long sleeps under the blankets when your have spent the last two months in a sweltering hot weather. Have I mentioned that this has been the hottest summer in more than 150 years in Italy? A weekend in the mountains sounded just perfect.

Add that August is the blueberry month in Abetone, and you can see me jump into the car, ready to leave.

Every year the authorities set a special range of time when you can walk up to the area where the blueberries grow wild and pick them: you just need to limit your harvest to 2 kilos per person per day, but if you have ever foraged a field for blueberries you know that you have to spend hours bent as an old man to fill up your basket.

Picking blueberries is a zen activity.

You are surrounded by quiet mountains, rolling fields, blueberry bushes everywhere confused among juniper and wild cardoons. You walk slowly, eyeing at the bushes, breathing in a balsamic air infused with the dry incense smell of spruce tree. All of a sudden the silence is broken by silver bells ringing in the valley: are those church bell towers or cows grazing in the fields in the distance?

When I am so focused on a manual task, my mind runs free, and I find myself listing recipes to make with blueberries, planning autumn activities, dreaming about restoring an old storehouse and turn it into my workspace. There’s something deeply rewarding in spending hours collecting blueberries: I call it blueberry crostata.

We picked up two and a half kilos of blueberries, then on Sunday we head to a local bar, where we could buy two more kilos. We came back home relaxed and happy, with almost 5 kilos of blueberries, to find out that a rainstorm had just washed down the countryside, the temperatures had dropped down significantly and it was definitely time to turn on the oven.

Rustic blueberry crostata

The dough is rustic thank to the whole-wheat flour, mixed with some whole rye flour. Instead of using a blueberry jam I scattered the crostata with fresh berries and sugar: cooking in the oven they reduced to a thick jam, which will lustfully bubble when ready.

Blueberry jam

The main purpose of our Apennines adventure was blueberry jam. We froze two bags of blueberries for winter smoothies and porridges, I baked a crostata – as I was dreaming about its juicy filling up there in the mountains – then the rest of our harvest became a jam: thick, pitch black jam for future cakes, breakfasts with bread and butter and sudden cravings.

More recipes with blueberries

• My sister made these pancakes the next morning, adding a generous handful of blueberries into the pancake batter.
• Necci are probably the most typical sweet treat of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines: throw a handful of blueberries in your ricotta for a late summer afternoon break.
• I bet this cake would taste just as good with frozen blueberries!
• This might be my next recipe with blueberries, I am missing a good old fashioned old school cake.
• These gluten free dairy free quinoa slices by Emma of My Darling lemon time is just gorgeous.
• This salad with blueberries, apples and rucola is tempting, too.
• Last but not least, Deliciously Ella’s almond and blueberry salad, light and refreshing during summer.

Related posts:

Where the lemons are sweet and the smiles are true: lemon bundt cake Whole wheat crostata with lemon marmalade. It took me some time to fall in love with crostate. What a Juls’ Kitchen cooking class tastes like: Torta della nonna Blueberry jam and ricotta crostata from the Tuscan Appennini