Fizzy Blueberry Meyer Lemonade
This blueberry meyer lemonade is so refreshing and perfect as a pitcher drink. Ready to share with friends and family at your next outdoor gathering. 
Blueberry Meyer Lemonade Fizz
I’m a berry boy. I love my berries. Unfortunately, Southern California doesn’t so much, or at least so I thought. Strawberries being the huge exception (they are amazing down here), I always thought that growing berries in our garden would be a futile task. I’m talking blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries. They were so easy for us to grow on the ranch in Oregon. It seemed like all we had to do was plant them and forget about it until we were ready for a mid-day treat.
Oh how the horses would stretch and strain to try and reach the raspberry vines. Lips stretching like little kids fingers reaching into the cookie jar high on the counter. The fence between the raspberries and horse had to be double high and narrow enough between rails that they couldn’t slide the heads through to reach our precious red fruit. 8 years ago when we were initially planning our garden here in Southern California we made a list of plants we loved. Next we grudgingly crossed out the ones which wouldn’t grow well in our zone, then started designing the garden based on the remaining plants. All but the strawberries were crossed off the berry list. Silly us.
Little did we know that many of them can grow quite well down here. Our ignorance was partly due to some varieties which have been developed or shown to do well in our milder climate, and part because we didn’t do enough research. But a garden in never finished. It is always evolving and changing and a berry boy is now quite happy with his Southern California garden. We’ve been able to add 4 blueberry bushes (3 diff. varieties to see which does best), a couple raspberry vines and a blackberry vine to add to our strawberries as our berry plant inventory.
The blueberries went in first. After a year of planting, adjusting and growing, we’ve started to see a nice production off of them. Well, almost. We see a lot of growth and green berries, but our mockingbirds have discovered their berry goodness. At this point our teenager plants can’t produce more than the #%^%@-ing mockingbirds can eat, so we’ve only been able to eat a handful. Sigh.
Delicious Berries in the Drink
The raspberries and blackberries have replaced a set of vines we took out this spring after its trellis broke. The jasmine was nice, but the berries are bad-ass. There is nothing like a home grown raspberry and they have been “goin’ gorilla” as the two baby vines are giving us almost a cup worth every other day. The blackberries are growing and fruiting well, but our blackies have yet to hit their season.
To celebrate our berry delight, and a friend’s cookbook, here is an adapted recipe from Sara Kate’s new cookbook, Good Food to Share.
Sara Kate’s gorgeous cookbook is filled with beautiful recipes full of fresh, seasonal produce and ingredients. It’s hard not to be inspired to cook, share and feed your family and friends when flipping through each thoughtful page and photograph. Each dish is sure to feed and please a crowd for any occasion and gathering.
So because of her book and love of giving, we’re more thoughtful about sharing our blueberries with the birds. At least on the days they beat us to the berries. A boy still has to have berries of his own.
-Todd & Diane
Check out our Cocktail Recipes Here and our Complete Whiskey Guide. 
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) fresh Meyer Lemon Juice (about 1 lemon)
- 1-2 Tablespoons (15-30ml) Simple Syrup
- 1/4 cup (60ml) Blueberries
- few dashes Bitters of choice (usually we'll use orange bitters)
- Soda Water
- Ice
- Mint for garnish
Instructions
- Combine lemon juice, simple syrup, and blueberries in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Fill a glass with ice. Add blueberry lemonade. Top with soda water.
- Garnish and serve.
This is my favorite variation of the lemonade that I’ve ever tried. It’s perfect with blueberries.
I just discovered your blog today on a trail from The Perfect Pantry. I cook and garden in northern IL and we have bumper crops of black and red rasberries in our small backyard. And as our bushes are thorny, we collect them free, but not easy. I agree with you that netting hardly seems fair to the birds, but our cat has discovered this area of the garden to be a lure for even more violent purposes! We have had to limit his access to the yard during berry season to avoid a heavy toll on our local Robin population. After all, they were here long before the cat arrived, returning every season to nest in our trees.
A few weeks ago, I reached into the freezer for a a couple of quarts of last summer’s fruit and made a new batch of rasberry jam, removing the seeds first. I keep simple syrup on hand and think I will make a batch of coulis or puree (without all the sugar in jam recipes) to fuel this coctail. It really will be a treat to sip it, while looking out at several inches of new snow. As we envy your citrus, we know we are lucky to have the daily handfuls of new berries that come in (in their season). As with our batches of homegrown grape jelly, we are rationing our frozen berries through the winter and looking forward to a new crop when summer finally arrives.
That is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing. You are a lucky girl with all those berries. Completely jealous! 🙂
So glad I wandered back into your archives this afternoon… this reminded me of home! I’m a recent transplant from Oregon to Southern California, and I, too, have considered myself in a berry desert. I’m pleased to know blueberry are not out of the question. I miss the two laden soldiers we had to leave behind when we moved at the end of the summer.
I love your blogs! May I ask what variety of blueberry bush did you plant? Thank you!
Thanks Anh! We are growing the Bountiful Blue, Misty Early Season, and the Jewel varieties.
I can’t wait to have a garden so I can grown my own berries, yours look so lovely! Hope you get a bumper crop!
This is exactly what I want on this beautiful, sunny Saturday! Thanks for sharing – meyer lemon and berry is one of the best combos.
There is a new variety (well…not really new this year but new last year!) of blueberries called PINK LEMONADE! I just bought them several weeks ago …won’t bear fruit yet but maybe in 2 years! They are supposed to bear dark pink berries when ripe!
What type of blueberries are they?
We have Misty Early Season, Bountiful Blues, and Jewel Blueberries. They all are excellent (when we actually find some before the birds), but each has a slight different flavor, size, and fruiting period.
This looks perfect, my little one like strawberry, I can make for her without soda. thanks.
Oh, yum yum yum! This looks great. Can you taste the blueberries very much? Next time I get my hands on blueberries I know what I will be making!
Love the story and the recipe, I can’t be the only one who is thinking about sneaking in a little gin into the glass
I had thought the exact same thing as I was making them the first time, but we decided to keep them virgin. At least for the post. Great minds Broderick! Great minds!
Such a refreshing drink and I love the look of blueberries speckles in the glad. A perfect drink to fix for the coming hot season.
This is my first year w/blueberries. Bought some 30 year old bushes last year and they are just covered in tiny green fruit. One of the gardening pros out here says she swirls some colored tuille around her bushes. She says that for some reason it freaks the birds out and they leave the berries alone. It looks more artistic than just putting up a bird netting structure. I may try it if they go after my blueberries instead of some of the other berry bushes I have planted for them.
What a gorgeous color! Just what I need right now…
I have all the ingredients in the fridge and was actually wondering what to do with the blueberries. yay! Can’t wait to try this. And I’ll have to check out Sara Kate’s new book… I’ve read great reviews.