With our acidic soil here, we have blueberries and blackberries growing wild. The kids and I went blackberry collecting one year and I made a batch of jam. The blueberries are the tiny ones and the birds eat most of them before they ripen. We’ve also got service-berry trees here and I actually managed to taste a ripe one that the birds missed and it tasted a lot like a blueberry.
Growing up in MA I used to feast on wild blueberries. The woods were loaded with the small ones and there was a hill/knoll I found that had the big ones. I called it blueberry hill of course.
I’ve been meaning to buy some bluecrop or one of the other varieties that the ag ext office recommends.
Looking at Gurney’s and the prices have gone up quite a bit. I got a nursery catalog in the mail this year from Chief River nursery in WI. They don’t have the selection that Gurney’s has but the prices are better.
"We’ve also got service-berry trees here and I actually managed to taste a ripe one that the birds missed and it tasted a lot like a blueberry."
Nurseryman Noah and I used to eat all the berries off the service berry bushes at Jung's and our boss would get mad because we were supposed to leave them as a 'selling point' for the customers, LOL!
We have three of the Saskatoon Service Berries. They look so pretty when they bloom in the spring.
Last season I noticed, for the first time, that they were loaded with Cedar Waxwings! I LOVE that bird, and they are pretty elusive, so seeing them was a THRILL for me. Anyhow, I now have 'Cedar Waxwing Trees' so they can have all the berries, as far as I'm concerned. :)
