BLUEBERRY ENCLYCLOPEDIA
Chelsea Keeler writes cookbook with a blueberry recipe from every state — and more
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

Chelsey Keeler’s blueberry recipe book will be on sale at Deb’s Books ‘n Things in Bath, where the author will sign copies. The book is also available at M. J. Ward and Son and some Wegmans Food stores..

BATH — When Chelsey Keeler was 12 years old, she wrote a letter to “Country Magazine” asking its readers to send her blueberry recipes from every state in the U.S.

Three years before, in 1999, the Keeler family had bought a three-acre blueberry farm in the Town of Bath. Now 12 years old, Chelsea was a blueberry expert — with a particular fondness for her grandmother’s own special recipe for blueberry cookies.

Her letter was published in the December/January edition of “Country,” after the magazine passed along a friendly warning she may receive lots of mail.

In fact, she received tons.

As her father, Jerry Keeler, recalls: “Readers from every one of the United States and three countries opened their recipe boxes, hearts and favorite ways of using blueberries.” The family was “overwhelmed” with mail, as the letters soared from 10 to 15 in a single day to to 80.

Chelsey had her collection — and more. She decided to turn the more than 2,000 recipes into a cookbook, started typing in the summer of 2003 and continued typing through 2004. The family eventually drew the attention of a publisher, Aardvark Global Publishing Company of Salt Lake City, Ut., and the presses, as they say, started rolling.

Now 17 and a junior at Haverling High School, Chelsey will hold a booksigning at Deb’s Books ‘n Things, 5 Liberty St., Bath, from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 14. The book is also available at M. J. Ward and Son Inc. on Bath’s Cameron Street. Wegmans Foods also has stocked the books and plans to sell them at 21 of its biggest stores, including the Corning site.

For more information on the cookbook, visit the Keeler’s farm at www.peeka blueberryfarm.com.

Asked for her favorite blueberry recipe, Chelsey is diplomatic. “I love them all,” she says.

But there is one special recipe: her grandmother’s for blueberry cookies. “They are very good, with a good blueberry flavor,” Chelsey says.

The recipe appears on page 23 of the cookbook.