Two good things happened this week — ripe blueberries and ripe Sungold tomatoes. Yay July! Granted the Sungolds weren't from my garden (yet); they came with our CSA loot from North Tabor Farm. Those folks know how to do tomatoes.

The first fat sweet blueberries colored up on one of our new highbush plants – the Blue Jay variety. I did not follow instructions and wait until the color of the berries was a deep, inky blue (that's when they're sweetest). I marched right out back and picked some as soon as they looked even remotely ripe. Sorry. I have happy childhood memories of picking blueberries from two giant bushes my father tended, and I like poking at those memories.

Actually, today is my father's 90th birthday and he's still at it — still gardening, still growing some blueberries, still digging holes, moving plants around, and staying fit.

We’re getting on the ferry for the first time in months and braving the Covid highways to travel to Delaware to be with him. I’m bringing along some of these fabulous Lemony Blueberry Bars with Chunky Almond Crumble. It's a new recipe from baker Abby Dodge for our latest installment of the Baking Together series. As soon as it hit my inbox, I made it straight away. The buttery crust with the crunchy almonds is excellent, and as Abby says, the cookies are like little portable blueberry pies (the kind with the crumb topping). So delicious.

For the birthday celebration in Delaware, my sister has planned a taco menu (Grilled Shrimp Tacos? Sam Sifton's Fish Tacos?) and is making my grandmother’s chocolate cake. One thing I’ll be making is another round of the Black Bean, Corn, Cherry Tomato, Zucchini, and Herb Salad that we made this weekend. It’s a simpler version of a fussy salad I devised a few years back that calls for arranging the ingredients in layers in a glass as a first course for a party. Nice, but not for now. I compromised with a semi-composed salad (above, messed up). Add a skewer of grilled shrimp if you like.

Lastly, due to our family obsession with green beans (it’s a wonder I eat them at all today) and corn (which is already being harvested in Delaware), I might also make this Green & White Bean Herb Salad with Fennel, Lemon and Corn, a recipe I created for the July issue of Martha’s Vineyard magazine, where I wrote about how to get a veggie garden going, even in July. And here’s a piece just about growing beans.

If a bean salad is too much trouble right now, stick with a simple crowd-pleaser: Blistered Chinese-Restaurant-Style Green Beans.

But back to blueberries for a minute – don’t forget how perfect they are for breakfast. With Judson’s Crispy Granola, of course, but also baked into the sweet eggy French pancake called Clafoutis or lightly mashed with maple syrup to top French Toast.

And wouldn't you know it, we’ve also got an excellent piece on growing blueberries. 

Okay, I know you can’t live on fruit and vegetables alone. Striped bass are coming in, so it's time for Seared Striper with a Summer Tomato-Fresh Corn Dressing.

See you on Instagram @cookthevineyard.