Recipe List: “August 1,19
This month’s “Country Kitchen” just might make you think you’ve died and gone to Blueberry Heaven.
The recipes are from Pat Randle, wife of long-time Lee County blueberry grower Frank Randle. Throughout Frank’s many years of berry farming, Pat has amassed an impressive collection of out-of-this-world recipes featuring the luscious fruit. She tries out every recipe she finds; Frank and the Randles’ two sons, Franklin and Zachary, decide whether a recipe makes the cut.
“If they really like it, they’ll say, ‘This one’s a keeper,'” Pat says. “But they know that I never follow a recipe exactly, that I always make my own adjustments. So when they like one, the first thing they ask me is, ‘Do you remember what you did to this recipe?'”
At the Randles’ chemical-free orchard, you can either pick your own blueberries, or buy them already picked. If you know much about blueberries, you know that the season only runs from early June through late July. But if you missed getting fresh berries this year, don’t fret: The Randles have hundreds of pounds of fresh-frozen blueberries for sale year-round.
Of course, the Randles aren’t on a strictly blueberry diet, and it isn’t just blueberry recipes Pat is sharing with Neighbors readers this month. Blueberry or not, you’ll consider all of them “keepers.”
Pat and Frank have been married almost 26 years (one of those rare blind date success stories). Pat, an Albertville native, is a registered nurse at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika. Frank produces blueberries, honey and sheep on their farm outside Auburn. The Randles’ oldest son, Franklin, is wrapping up his first quarter at Auburn University, where he’s majoring in agronomy. He intends to “come back and farm with his dad,” Pat proudly says.
You’ve got to wonder if Mama’s home cooking has anything to do with that decision.