The Wild Blueberry - Maine's Native Berry
Maine's 60,000 acres of wild blueberries grow naturally in fields and barrens that stretch from Downeast to the state's southwest corner. Adapted to Maine's naturally acid, low fertility soils and challenging
winters, wild blueberries are a low input crop requiring minimal management. The berries are grown on a two-year cycle — each year, half of a grower's land is managed to encourage vegetative growth and the other half is prepared for a wild blueberry harvest in August. After the harvest the plants are pruned to the ground by mowing or burning.
Wild Blueberries – A Maine Tradition
The Wild Blueberry holds a special place in Maine's agricultural history — one that goes back centuries, to Maine's Native Americans. They were the first to use the tiny blue berries, both fresh and dried, for their flavor, their nutrition and their
healing qualities. In the 1840's, wild blueberries were first harvested commercially. Today, with an annual crop valued at more than $75 million, wild blueberries make a major contribution to Maine's economy.
Maine Leads the Way
Maine is responsible for more than 90 percent of the nation's wild blueberry crop, is the world's largest producer. The glacially formed "barrens," vast rolling plains of sandy soil, are perfect for raising wild, low bush blueberries. Thus, the growing, harvesting and processing of the blueberry are a major industry in parts of Maine and its number two commercial crop. Nearly a quarter million acres of barrens yield an average of 30 million pounds of blueberries annually.
The barrens are a stark, wild, almost surreal landscape, a smooth undulating carpet of blueberry plants, rhodora, tea-berry and bracken with only an occasional lonely pine or great glacial boulder to break the horizon. In June the barrens are speckled with the white blossoms and on a nice summer's day the air is thick with the fragrance of ripening berries and sun-warmed laurel.
Unlike the larger cultivated blueberries usually sold in supermarkets, wild blueberries are tiny and really are wild; most have crept over Maine's rocky land naturally, creating hundreds of thousands of bushes. Other than Canada and a few scattered locations in New England, they aren't found anywhere else in the world.
Unlike cultivated blueberry farms, where large-scale growers plant acres of the fruit, most of Maine's private growers simply own the land on which blueberries have grown for generations. In recent years, weed killing and better management has improved the blueberry yield.
Annual Harvest and the Blueberry Rake
The actual harvest takes place in August. Local families, as well as Micmac Indians from New Brunswick, rake berries from dawn to day's end since the entire crop has to be harvested by the first frost. At this time the delicate blueberry dies and the scrub growth of the barrens turn into a blaze of deep golds, greens, purple and russet.
Harvesting is still mainly by hand rake- a close-tined special RAKE invented about 112 years ago by a local Downeaster, Abijah Tabbutt and modified in minor variations since then.
The secret is in the wielding of the rake - a special pushing and twisting motion of the wrists designed to tease the ripe berries from their grasp of the vine without crushing. Hand-raking is increasingly being replaced by mechanized harvesting. Although the technology is getting very good, hand-raking will always have its place - due in large part to the hilly and rocky terrain that a lot of wild blueberry patches are found on.
Integrated Crop Management
Because wild blueberries are indigenous to Maine, they are naturally resistant to many native pests. Still, there are times when environmental stressors such as disease, drought, insect damage and winter injury can ruin much of the fruit. It is the grower's challenge to minimize such crop damage. To minimize fruit destruction without harming the environment, growers use continually evolving knowledge-based techniques called Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). For example, taking leaf tissue samples to see if plants need to be fertilized is now a common ICM practice. Growers use ICM and IPM throughout the crop cycle to monitor for disease and insect levels that could reduce crop quality and quantity. When critical levels are reached, growers consider a full range of control methods, from cultural techniques to the selective application of pesticides.
Preserving Maine's Wild Blueberry Heritage
Wild blueberries have become a symbol of Maine's agricultural heritage — a heritage that respects and values our environment. Because growers consider the future well-being of the land, neighbors and visitors can continue to enjoy some of Maine's most scenic vistas and precious wildlife habitats.
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