8/11/11 JOE-PYE-WEED, BLUEBERRIES AND KOSOVO

JOE-PYE-WEED

LARGEST BLUEBERRY FARM IN WISCONSIN

IS A BLUEBERRY BARN BLUE?

Thursday, 7:30 AM.  67 degrees, wind W, light.  The sky is clear, the humidity is up some and the barometer predicts rain, but probably not until evening.  It will be a little warmer and more humid today than yesterday.
    Joe-Pye-weed, Eupatoriu maculatum, in the sunflower family, has just started blooming in roadside ditches and other wet places.  It will also do well in the garden with a little extra water, where it is quite a handsome plant.  Its common name refers to an Indian medicine man who was a proponent of its herbal uses, which were many, and it is still used as a diuretic and for treatment  of kidney stones.
    We went to Highland Valley Farm in the orchard country yesterday to pick up our twenty  pounds of frozen blueberries, which will last us until next year’s harvest.  Rick and Janet Dale started out over thirty years ago as bee keepers, selling honey, which they still do, but found blueberries a more certain income; they also grow raspberries, and tap 150 maple trees.  Their grown children are now gradually  assuming the business, the largest blueberry farm in Wisconsin, and Rick is currently in Kosovo with USAID, doing a feasibility study on growing blueberries there.  Bayfieldians do get around.