By The historian — her name is Margaret Pierce, she teaches at the community college in Burlington — came Thursday and spent three hours with the account books in the sugarhouse. She had gloves. She had a magnifying glass. She had a notebook and a camera and the focused energy of a person who finds old ledgers genuinely exciting, which I respect completely because I have the same response to a first edition of Frost.
She confirmed Amos Plante in the photograph and believes the fourth man may be a Ledoux from Charlotte, based on a census reference she found. She said the account books were remarkable for their consistency and detail, and asked if she could make a photographic archive of them. I said yes, obviously. My grandfather kept these records for twenty-seven years so that someone would eventually find them useful. That someone is now here. He would have been pleased.
After she left I stood in the sugarhouse for a while. The evaporator is cold, season done. The buckets are stacked. The equipment is clean. The sugarhouse in April is a patient room — everything put away, everything ready to be needed again next March, when the sap runs and we begin the whole thing over. I have stood in this room at this time of year for forty-something years. It looks the same. The smell is the same. I am older and the sugarhouse is not, which is the correct order of things.
Helen made rhubarb crisp this week — the first rhubarb of the season, from the crowns that have come up under the east fence. The crisp was tart and warm and exactly right for a cold April evening. It tasted like the year beginning to pay off. The garden is a long bet that you make in October and collect on from April through November, one harvest at a time. Helen has been making this bet since before I knew her. She has never lost it once.
Helen’s rhubarb crisp is hers and I wouldn’t attempt to replicate it here — some recipes belong to the person who makes them, and that’s exactly as it should be. But the spirit of it, that particular combination of fruit and oat and warmth on a cold April evening, sent me toward these blueberry oatmeal muffins, which I’ve made on mornings when the sugarhouse season has just closed and the house needs something to fill the quiet. They are not complicated. They are the kind of thing you make because the year is beginning to come around, and you want something in your hands that proves it.
Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 37 min | Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar, for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Soak the oats. Combine the rolled oats and buttermilk in a large bowl and stir to mix. Let stand for 10 minutes so the oats soften and absorb the liquid.
- Preheat and prepare. Heat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease lightly with butter.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until evenly combined.
- Combine the wet ingredients. Add the beaten egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract to the oat-buttermilk mixture and stir until just incorporated.
- Fold together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spatula — only until the flour disappears. Do not overmix; lumps are fine.
- Add the blueberries. Fold in the blueberries with 2 or 3 gentle turns of the spatula, being careful not to crush them.
- Fill and top. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the tops if using.
- Bake. Bake for 20–22 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 165 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 27g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 185mg