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| BUDDY IN THE BEACH BLUEBERRIES... |
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| EARLY BLUEBERRIES, VERY TASTY |
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| BUT BUDDY FOUND THIS FAMILY OF MERGANSERS A LOT MORE INTERESTING |
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| A GOOD BLUEBRRY CROP |
Wednesday, 7:00 AM. 68 degrees F on both thermometers. Wind E, calm with light to moderate gusts. At present the sky is overcast and cloudy, and a thunderstorm is predicted this morning. The humidity is 63% and the barometer has begun to rise, now at 29.96". Today is predicted to be much cooler than yesterday, which got well into the 80's in the afternoon. The lawn needs mowing but I keep putting it off until the weather moderates.
I took Buddy to the beach yesterday morning before breakfast and we found the early blueberries, also known as low-bush blueberries, Vaccinium angustifolium, in the Heath Family (Ericacceae) ripe and quite tasty. Anguistifolium translates from the Latin as "narrow leafed." The wild blueberry crop looks good this year, and the cultivated blueberry crop will be over the top, as the bushes are loaded with ripening berries.
We stopped at Highland Valley Farm last Sunday and ordered our usual twenty pounds of frozen berries (the berries were not yet quite ripe at the time). Now that blueberries are grown in California, Florida and in South America fresh blueberries are available all year 'round, but our local berries are great, and as good frozen as fresh.
Wild berries are usually much smaller than the cultivated, and difficult to pick, especially the low-bush blueberries. The wild berries are perhaps somewhat more tasty than the farm raised, but if we had to rely on my own efforts to eat wild blueberries we wouldn't be eating many.
Blueberries need acid soil, and may need to be fertilized with an acid based fertilizer. In nature they also can be increased by fires that reduce competition with other vegetation, which eastern American Indians did historically. In some areas of New England and eastern Canada wild blueberries are picked by machine (and also by hand) and sold as a commercial crop. Blueberry barrens often are very large and are a natural monoculture. Blueberries are common in sandy soil in northern Wisconsin and are found in acid bogs in the southern part of the state. They have a beautiful red fall color and can make attractive landscape plants, and I like to use them in my designs.
Blueberries,which are rich in antioxidents, are a great health food, and are in particular good for eye health. During World War II and the Battle of Britain, RAF fighter pilots ate bilberry (Euroean blueberries) jam to aid their eyesight.
I took Buddy to the beach yesterday morning before breakfast and we found the early blueberries, also known as low-bush blueberries, Vaccinium angustifolium, in the Heath Family (Ericacceae) ripe and quite tasty. Anguistifolium translates from the Latin as "narrow leafed." The wild blueberry crop looks good this year, and the cultivated blueberry crop will be over the top, as the bushes are loaded with ripening berries.
We stopped at Highland Valley Farm last Sunday and ordered our usual twenty pounds of frozen berries (the berries were not yet quite ripe at the time). Now that blueberries are grown in California, Florida and in South America fresh blueberries are available all year 'round, but our local berries are great, and as good frozen as fresh.
Wild berries are usually much smaller than the cultivated, and difficult to pick, especially the low-bush blueberries. The wild berries are perhaps somewhat more tasty than the farm raised, but if we had to rely on my own efforts to eat wild blueberries we wouldn't be eating many.
Blueberries need acid soil, and may need to be fertilized with an acid based fertilizer. In nature they also can be increased by fires that reduce competition with other vegetation, which eastern American Indians did historically. In some areas of New England and eastern Canada wild blueberries are picked by machine (and also by hand) and sold as a commercial crop. Blueberry barrens often are very large and are a natural monoculture. Blueberries are common in sandy soil in northern Wisconsin and are found in acid bogs in the southern part of the state. They have a beautiful red fall color and can make attractive landscape plants, and I like to use them in my designs.
Blueberries,which are rich in antioxidents, are a great health food, and are in particular good for eye health. During World War II and the Battle of Britain, RAF fighter pilots ate bilberry (Euroean blueberries) jam to aid their eyesight.
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