Yay – Blueberries
I love blueberries, love, love, love them! We always had blueberry bushes growing up and always picked buckets and buckets of them to freeze and enjoy all winter long. Back in Ohio, blueberry bushes were some of the first things we planted in our garden. Luckily, we have a couple blueberry bushes here, only one produces fruit. They all need moved to a better spot, hopefully that will happen this fall.
When it comes to blueberries, I prefer the high bush over the low bush. I like the sourness that they have, they seem more well-rounded in flavor than the low bush, which just seem sweet to me. The low bush are great for baking though, their small size makes the perfect for pancakes, scones, and muffins. We have a big patch of wild low bush berries as well, I just need to get a rake to harvest them.
Do you like blueberries? Do you grow them in your garden? Do you have a preference between high bush or low bush?
Filed under Around the Garden, harvest | Comments (4)
I love blueberries! I prefer our low bush ones. I raked them as a kid. It was my first summer job. Back-breaking work, but good money then. I am hoping to put up some blueberry jam and make a blueberry pie before the season ends. I recently tried the smitten kitchen very blueberry scones and they were quite good. Enjoy!
to Emily's comment
Here in central NC, the standard for blueberries is the Tifblue variety, which is a “rabbiteye” variety. The bushes get quite tall (need a ladder if not kept pruned).
I have an interesting situation with my blueberries. On years that the wild cherry trees bear heavily, the birds prefer the cherries, and I have a chance to get my blueberries. The blueberry season usually lasts longer than the cherries, and once the cherries are gone, the birds start in on the blueberries.
This year, there were no cherries. We had an extreme hailstorm in April, and I’m guessing that damaged the buds or blooms of the cherries. With no alternative food, the birds ate all my blueberries.
to bonnie knox's comment
Susy, blueberries, I thought grew wild in Maine. The main berries grown here in Nebraska are blackberries and raspberries. Mulberries grow wild every where. They are practically a noxious weed here and grow along every fence line. Not only do the birds like them but them sit on the fence lines and plant them with natural fertilizer. Once I get Terra Nova Gardens under control and the way I want it then I’ll start thinking about berries. The space for them has been taken over by the wild again. Vacant lot growing can be extremely challenging, so I’m finding out. You ever seen bind weed out of control. It’s not a pretty sight. All bind weed needs is a tiny bit of soil to root in and the foliage can cover a massive space. I pulled up two heaping wheel barrows of bind weed foliage from a couple roots just the other day. (Big sigh)
Have a great Maine planting day.
to Nebraska Dave's comment
We don’t have the right soil or the right weather here. Too bad because I do love them. I even have 4 bushes in pots but the chickens were eating the leaves so I moved them to the front yard where the caterpillars who congregate under the porch light decimated them.
to Sarah's comment