For the love of blueberries

The Country Today ^ | 8-8-03 | Theresa Blume

[SJackson]

Personally, I like to just bend over, pick them and eat them, but to each his own.

If anyone other than Adam is interested in a ping list on rural (part time, historical, and food) related topics, FRmail me, maybe I'll start one.

[cmsgop]

Sounds Cool! There is a Blueberry Farm 2miles away from me. I should stop by. Im a City boy who lives in the country now, 7 months so far and I love it!

[SamAdams76]

Research has shown that eating blueberries could help prevent cancer, slow down the ageing process, control urinary tract infections and help reduce cholesterol in the bloodstream. Other health benefits associated with blueberries is backed up by studies carried out in the US, Japan, France and other countries, and include:

• Cold preventive
• Detoxicant
• Anti-diabetic
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-allergic
• Eye problems
• Inflammatory joint disorders

The US Department of Agriculture has claimed that blueberries contain 50% more antioxidants than strawberries, 100% more than oranges and 400% more than broccoli and spinach.

Blueberries are low in fat, low in calories, high in vitamins A and C, high in dietary fibre, high in calcium, requires little sweetening.

[cmsgop]

Thats Impressive Sam. Looks like BB's for me.

[mombonn]

Blueberries are our friends. I just froze several bags of them last night!

My daughter, who lives in PA, was lamenting the absence of bluberries in her state of choice.

[zarf]

I was fortunate to spend a few summers raking blueberries in Down East Maine with the Pasamaquati indians. I met a young photographer, David Stess, who was doing a photojournal over a 10 year period on his raking experiences. He's become quite well known in Maine. His work, some of it which hangs in my home, is moving-defining the migrant experience and every time I eat the berries I look at those photos and think of all those doing that back breaking work..... with affection.

A photo of one of the blueberry rakers...

[FLAMING DEATH]

There's a place in WV called Dolly Sods. It's on top of a ridge over 4,000 feet in elevation. It is literally a piece of tundra right in the middle of the East Coast. At the end of it, a place called Bear Rocks, you can almost see forever...literally far into VA, our neighboring state.

Once a year, the place is almost overrun with wild blueberries. Visitors are free to pick and eat their fill.

The animals know about this too, and you can see every possible type of wildlife; deer, birds, bears and every creature imaginable feast on the blueberries.

People who study wildlife take advantage of this...they put up huge nets on the sides of the ridges and catch birds as they fly up the slopes. You can see red-tailed hawks and other interesting birds up close. They are banded there and released, but usually the people doing the catching are nice enough to let you get a good look at them before letting them go.

The whole ridge is crisscrossed with trails. You could walk for days and never see the same place twice.

There aren't any highways, only dirt roads, so you don't have the roar of traffic. At night, it is very dark, since there's no electricity on the entire mountain. You can see almost every star in the sky. My cousins from a more urban location insist on being on the ridgetop at night at least once every time they visit.

You can camp there primitively for free, or there's paid camping with some slightly more civilized facilities. On Red Creek, there's a natural waterslide that will carry you about 40 or 50 feet downstream. Be wary, the water usually doesn't get much more than 50 degrees, even in the summer.

And, within spitting distance, there's some of the best trout and smallmouth fishing to be had. Plus, endless opportunities for canoeing or even whitewater kayaking.

I'm starting to sound like an advertisement. Your post just got me to thinking, though.

Not really relavent to the topic, but still nice to talk about.

[FLAMING DEATH]

Oh, and another thing. The place is riddled with unexploded mortar shells.

It was used for artillery practice during WWII. So if you find one, don't touch it.

Check out these pictures...

Google image search..."Dolly Sods"

[breakem]

almost heaven

[FLAMING DEATH]

Yes it is. Except for the part about it being riddled with unexploded mortar shells.

[breakem]

and coal companies leveling off mountian tops

[norraad]

Our local S.J. u-pick has blueberry bushes that are 45 years old & going strong.

I didn't know they could live so long.

love the blue's

[planter]

Personally, I like to just bend over, pick them and eat them, but to each his own.

My preferred method as well. I have more blueberries than you can shake a stick at. The crop, and the berries themselves, gets larger with each passing year, except for the years that I burn of course. They are very near my house , so I'm able to gorge on them almost every day. My wife kids have to fend for themselves. Many years ago my family used to rake on the back barrens and ship them stateside. Unfortunately the barrens are now overgrown. However, it is of little consequence since the vast majority of the berries that I now have will rot on the bush. Oh well. Some day!

[fish hawk]

If you think blueberries are good, you got to try wild Huckleberries. Better in my opinion. I know they grow on the northwest coast but not sure where else.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Nice story - midway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, we're surrounded by blueberry farms stretching for miles and miles - so many, in fact, that we're known as "The Blueberry Capital of the World" - at least that's what the Chamber of Commerce put on the sign right outside of town.....

[this_ol_patriot]

....wild Huckleberries

Yup, picked lots of them in NE Pa. when I was a kid, about half the size or less of your average store bought blueberry. Someone burned out the banks every few years to keep them nice. As kids we loved the "swampers" we found but Dad said they weren't as good, we liked them because they were bigger. We also ate Juneberries, Elderberries and Mulberries. Now only the birds eat them and purple poo on your windshield.

[djf]

Used to pick them in the Adirondacks. But the best berry is something that is rare on the west coast, what we used to call blackberries or blackcaps, the east coast standard black raspberry. What is called a "blackberry" on the west coast, we used to call "thimbleberries".

We used to get black raspberries as big as your thumb. Delicious.

Incidentally, almost all of the briar type berry plants are members of the ROSE family!!

[HiTech RedNeck]

I was surprised to learn that the cranberry and the blueberry are virtually the same plant. Why there isn't an intermediate variety with purple berries I don't know.

[185JHP]

The FreeRepublic of berries...