Picking the First Blueberries of the Season

July 14, 2021

Picking the First Blueberries of the Season

It's berry picking season once again and the blueberries at my Bedford, New York farm are ripe for the picking!

Plump, juicy, and sweet, with vibrant colors from red to the deepest purple-black, blueberries are one of nature’s finest treasures. I love to use them for jams, jellies, and pies, but they’re also wonderful with cereal, in pancakes and cobblers, and of course, in handfuls on their own. Low in fat, yet packed with vitamin-C and antioxidants, it’s not surprising they’re one of America’s favorite fruits to eat.

Yesterday, we started picking lots of delicious blueberries. Enjoy these photos.

: My blueberries are all from these bushes located near my Flower Cutting Garden and large Equipment Barn, next to my grove of quince trees. The posts are the same 18th-century Chinese granite uprights I use for the clematis pergola, my apple espaliers, and to support my raspberry bushes. For most of the year, these healthy blueberry bushes are left open under this large pergola. And just before the bushes are laden with fruits, we place a net over the pergola to protect the developing berries from all the birds.

: The netting covers the blueberry bushes on all sides and on the top. I use a durable plastic bird netting, which can be reused every season for several years.

: Here is a closer look at the netting we use. The holes are flexible enough so if a bird does manage to get in, it can also get out.

: These sod staples are used to keep the netting taut and well-secured, but still easy enough to remove for harvesting. They are placed every few inches to ensure there are no openings for curious ground critters.

: The netting is pulled taut to the ground and then secured. The sod staples are great because they also allow for easy access to the bushes when it’s time to harvest.

: Here’s my housekeeper, Elvira, just starting to pick the first blueberries of the season. She is using two-pint wooden berry picking baskets made from natural flat wood slats.

: These bushes are so full! Bunches are hanging from nearly every branch. I grow many blueberry varieties, including ‘Bluegold’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Darrow’, ‘Jersey’, and ‘Patriot’.

: Blueberries are about five to 16 millimeters large with a flared crown at the end. They are pale greenish at first, and then reddish-purple and finally dark purple-blue when ripe for picking. When harvesting the fruits, select plump, full berries with a light gray-blue color. A berry with a hint of red is not fully ripened.

: Blueberries were once called “star fruits” by North American indigenous peoples because of the five-pointed star shaped crown.

: They are also covered in a protective powdery epicuticular wax known as the “bloom”. These berries are just right for picking. Blueberries are high in fiber, high in vitamin-C, and contain one of the highest amounts of antioxidants among all fruits and vegetables.

: And, the blueberry is one of the only foods that is truly naturally blue. The pigment that gives blueberries their distinctive color is called anthocyanin – the same compound that provides the blueberry’s amazing health benefits.

: Blueberries are perennial flowering plants. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Vaccinium also includes cranberries, bilberries, huckleberries, and Madeira blueberries.

: The day was cloudy, but quite pleasant with temperatures in the 70s, so Elvira set out to pick as many blueberries as she could before the temperatures soared into the upper 80s.

: Standard blueberry bushes grow about six to 10-feet tall. New shoots grow from the crown under the soil. At the base, blueberry shrubs have multiple canes growing directly out of the soil in clumps. The canes or branches are smooth and thornless. These bushes have done so well here at the farm. I am always so pleased with how prolific they are. A single mature blueberry bush can produce up to six thousand blueberries per year.

: Blueberry bushes have glossy leaves that are green or bluish-green from spring through summer. The leaves are ovate, in an irregular oval or slightly egg shape that is wider at the bottom than the top. Blueberry leaves can also be harvested and dried for teas.