Picking Lots of Blueberries
It's still berry season and the blueberries at my farm are plentiful and ripe for the picking!
Plump, juicy, and sweet, 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. I also grow raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, strawberries, and currants.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- My blueberry bushes are laden with delicious fruits – they’ve never been so full. My blueberries are all from these bushes located between my flower garden and large Equipment Barn, next to a stand of quince trees.
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- The posts are the same 18th-century Chinese granite uprights I use for the clematis pergola, my apple espaliers, and my raspberry bushes.
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- Standard blueberry bushes grow about six to 10-feet tall. New shoots grow from the crown under the soil.
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- At the base, blueberry shrubs have multiple canes growing directly out of the earth 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 every year.
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- 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.
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- And do you know… blueberries are among the most popular berries for eating? Here in the United States, they are second only to strawberries. There are two types of blueberries, highbush and lowbush. Highbush blueberries are the types you commonly find at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Lowbush blueberries are smaller, sweeter blueberries often used for making juices, jams, and baked goods.
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- Blueberries are pale greenish at first, and then reddish-purple and finally dark purple-blue when ripe for picking.
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- Here, one can see the colors of the berries as they develop – green, then red, then blue.
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- And blueberries don’t actually reach their full flavor until a few days after they turn blue, so a tip to know which ones are the best – tickle the bunches lightly, and only the truly ripe ones will fall into your hand.
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- Each of these fruits is about five to 16 millimeters large with a flared crown at the end. They were once called “star fruits” by North American indigenous peoples because of the five-pointed star shaped crown.
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- Blueberries are covered in a protective powdery epicuticular wax known as the “bloom”. Blueberries are high in fiber, high in vitamin-C, and contain one of the highest amounts of antioxidants among all fruits and vegetables.
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- Many blueberries also fall to the ground. All those picked are carefully inspected – only the best are saved. The rest are enjoyed by the birds.
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- Here’s Enma with a full box of berries – picked in just a few minutes. I grow many blueberry varieties, including ‘Bluegold’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Darrow’, ‘Jersey’, and ‘Patriot’.
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- These boxes were all picked in under an hour. Blueberries produce from early summer through late fall – we will pick lots and lots of berries before the end of the season.
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- Not far from the blueberries is my raspberry patch. I have several rows of raspberry bushes. Summer-bearing raspberry bushes produce one crop each season that lasts about one month.
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- One plant can produce several hundred berries in a season. Raspberries are vigorous growers and will produce runners that fill up a bed.
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- Once raspberries are picked, they stop ripening, so under-ripe berries that are harvested will never mature to the maximum sweetness. Only ripe raspberries will come right off the stem. The black raspberry plant is a high producing early variety whose upright growth makes it easy for picking.
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- These are red raspberries. These must be picked and handled very carefully as they are very delicate.
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- I also have blackberry bushes. This is one of the fruits. The blackberry is packed with vitamins C, K, and E, rich in dietary fiber, and low in sugar. Blackberries are juicy and delicious eaten raw.
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- I always grow strawberries. Strawberries are among the easiest berries to grow. They are cold-hardy and adaptable, and can be planted in both garden beds and containers.
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- Gooseberries are native to Europe, northwest Africa, and all regions of Asia except for the north. Gooseberries grow best in areas with cold, freezing winters and humid summers.
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- And of course, currants. I grow red, white, pink, and black currant varieties. Currants are still largely unknown here in the United States. They are well-loved in many other countries, and here in the US, they are slowly gaining popularity, especially because of the high antioxidant content. They are now more prevalent at local farms and home gardens. What berries do you grow?
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