THE BAYFIELD BLUES

"BAYFIELD BLUES" ARE RIPE AND ARE DELICIOUS

... PICKED, OR PICK  YOUR OWN

HIGHLAND VALLEY FARM ON SUNSET VALLEY  ROAD
...WISCONSIN'S LARGEST BLUEBERRY FARM

WILD BLUEBERRIES

Monday, 9:30 AM.  64 degrees F, wind N, light to moderate (bringing cooler temperatures).  The sky has scattered clouds and the humidity is 66%.  The barometer is rising, now at 29.77".  It is a fine morning.  Buddy and I just came back from the beach, where the wild blueberries are ripening.
   Bayfield's  commercial blueberry crop is in!  We saw them for sale first at Rocky Acres berry farm on Saturday, picked berries being sold alongside raspberries, at $4.00 per pint.  We then checked out Highland Valley Farm on Sunset Valley Road, Wisconsin's largest blueberry farm; they have begun harvesting as well.  Highland Valley sells flash-frozen berries for your freezer, as well as fresh berries, picked or pick your own.
   Blueberries are a fantastic health food, chock full of antioxidants.  We eat them almost every day, fresh or frozen, on cereal, yogurt, ice cream, or just out of hand.  They are particularly beneficial to one's eyes.  In WWII, British aviators ate bilberry (a European close relative of the blueberry) jam before missions, to sharpen their vision.
   The blueberry bushes at the beach have a number of different descriptive common names, the best I think is low sweet blueberry, for which the scientific name is Vaccinium angustifolium, in the Heath Family, the Ericaceae. It forms extensive mats that spread by underground stems.  The plants are very short, usually less than a foot in height.  Their native range is northeastern US and southeastern Canada, and they grow on sandy, rocky shores, bogs and other acidic soils, including around the Great Lakes.
   They are tasty and sweet, but it is easy to realize when picking them how much time it takes to be a hunter-gatherer.  I will repeat a comment I heard or read somewhere about a discussion between an Indian and a white man, the Indian saying, "You white guys think us Indians just lay around all day, but let me tell you, an Indian is busy all the time gathering wild food and hunting, and performing all the necessary ceremonies that go along with it." He might have mentioned the cultural knowledge needed to determine what is edible and what is not.  At present many of our berry farms rely on Indians from the Rez to pick their produce, so you might say the hunter-gatherer tradition continues.
   Not that many years ago the local Ojibwa Indians used to pick wild blueberries and sell them, but at even minimum wage the price today would have to be about $8.00 a pint to make it at all worth the effort, although one does become more adept at it with experience, and perhaps a hand-held rake or comb might help.  There are mechanical pickers used in Canada and New England for harvesting wild blueberries which would be interesting to see.  One can find frozen wild berries at times in the freezer isle; and large blueberry barrens in New England and eastern Canada are burned and managed for harvest.  Whether that makes them less "wild" I will leave to others to debate.
   It is also hotly debated whether wild blueberries taste better than domestic blueberries.  I consider them both good, the wild being somewhat more intense in flavor.  All things considered, they aren't much different, but as scarce and difficult to harvest as they are,  few people would be eating wild blueberries.  The wild berries are reportedly higher in antioxidants, but that is also a moot question if they are unattainable.
   So you see, the Bayfield Blues are not some soulful tune; they are local blueberries, delicious and healthful!