Late summer is the time of year when nature’s endowment to the Wild Blueberry — the beloved food known worldwide as an anti-aging superfruit — is truly realized. Beginning in August, farmers throughout Maine and Canada begin a process that originated in 1874, when commercial harvesting first began. Today, there is no sign that their dedication has waned in their effort to tend this unique fruit whose taste, nutritional attributes, and overall mystique makes it the health icon it is today.
The mystique that makes this fruit “premium by nature” is due in large part to the exclusive geographic origin and natural growing conditions under which they thrive. The regions of Maine and Eastern Canada are home to large stretches of barrens where Wild Blueberries are grown. Canadian provinces including Nova Scotia, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland also boast Wild Blueberry crops. Over 60,000 acres of blueberry farmland stretch across Maine alone, providing an average 70 million pounds of berries each year. Wild blues are native only to these Northern American regions. They have naturally evolved to thrive in the challenging acidic soils and under the environmental stresses of changing temperature that the four diverse seasons provide. The result is an array of distinctive variations in skin color, plant height, taste, and fruit size, all on grand display during the busy late summer season when unique harvesting methods, both modern and traditional, are in the spotlight.
A Two-year Harvest
During the harvest season, “the subject of most discussions in the local restaurants and coffee shops is blueberries,” said Ragnar Kamp, General Manager of Cherryfield Foods in Maine. That’s when festival preparation is at its peak in Down East Maine and the dessert of the day is always blueberry pie. It’s no wonder: August is the culmination of a two-year growing cycle, in which the crop’s success is dependent on many factors both in and out of a blueberry farmer’s control.
As part of this two-year cycle, producers either mow or burn half of their Wild Blueberry fields to the ground to initiate the prune cycle — a time when the ground yields only green. The other half of the land is prepared for the production of fruit. From sprout year through harvest, the crop is dependent upon the first season’s spring and summer, the extent of potentially injurious frost, the amount of winter snow that provides protection, as well as the next year’s spring and summer weather.
Ample moisture last fall and this winter’s abundant snow was a boon for increasing the size of the fruit bud, which swells with the moisture, as well as the potential to have more fruit per plant. Blossoms average five or six per bud but can top 15 if conditions are good. Bud amounts also depend on pollination by bees, which this season, despite concern in recent years, has reportedly been strong.
Part of the growing process also includes a unique dedication to agricultural practices that ensure healthy crops for generations to come. “We try to use the minimum input to get the maximum amount of return,” said Greg Bridges of Bridges Wild Blueberry Company in Calais, Maine. Growers like Bridges use Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) throughout the crop cycle. They monitor disease and insect levels to minimize fruit destruction without harming the environment.
Combining Tradition & Technology
After the two-year growth cycle, capturing Wild Blueberries at the height of taste and nutrition requires a mixture of traditional and high-tech methods. Wild blueberries were first gathered by Native Americans. In 1910, following the onset of commercial harvesting, harvesters turned to hand-raking as the preferred method of gathering berries. Laborers would disperse onto the fields with hand-held rakes designed to clean the plants of their fruit. On many farms, the same thing occurs today: from morning until day’s end throughout the month of August, laborers — some from the local community, some who are migrant workers — meticulously clean their designated rows, careful not to pack their rake before emptying it, and cautiously clean out weeds so as not to harm the berries. They then bring brimming buckets to the winnowing machines to remove leaves and twigs. Payment for hand-raking varies based on the crop and levelness of the field, and laborers can make hundreds of dollars a day on productive grounds.
Through the years, farmers have been challenged by rough and rocky ground, making Wild Blueberries traditionally a hand crop, since the tough terrain made large scale mechanized harvesting difficult. The result has been the preservation of small family operations. “Everyone wants to have a level field,” said Bridges. He estimates that 50% of raking is currently done by hand as farmers slowly turn to mechanized harvesting. “It’s becoming a lost art. Some of the older people who have raked all their life can rake blueberries without damaging them,” he said, but most farmers turn to mechanized harvesting to ensure a pristine crop. Mechanizing also means growers can mow the grounds, a more environmentally sound practice than the traditional burning, and it lessens their dependence on hand labor — something that even in Maine is becoming difficult to find, Bridges said.
At Cherryfield Foods, where over 90% of the crop is harvested by machines, harvesting is a technologically advanced process that involves the use of state-of-the-art hydraulic systems controlled by onboard computers. The cleaning process in their factories also uses state-of-the-art computer controlled equipment. The integration of technology in this century-old harvesting process, Kamp said, ensures only ripe tasty blueberries end up in the carton, tub, bag or pouch, at the other end of the process.
From Field to Freezer: Picked Just Right
Once picked and winnowed, farmers make sure the Wild Blueberries get to the factory in a timely manner and are frozen at the height of taste, ripeness and nutritional power. “We always say about frozen blueberries that they are not picked too soon, they are picked just right,” said Bridges, stressing the benefit of freezing over the hazards of premature picking and storage. Freezing occurs at large processors where growers send their crop; some cross from the U.S. to Canada, while others are sent from Canada to the U.S. In this way, it is “kind of an international berry” characterized Bridges, due to its unique contribution to building relationships on both sides of the border.
Ninety-nine percent of the Wild Blueberry crop is frozen, using the individually quick freezing method (IQF) which allows for the fast preservation of taste, nutrition, and antioxidant power. IQF blueberries can remain frozen for over two years without losing their flavor or nutritional value. While the fresh-pack industry is very small, it has garnered growing interest from farmers because of the added value that comes with eliminating processing. Some farmers even freight fresh berries out-of-state to places as far flung as Texas, so buyers can enjoy the taste of the indigenous wild fruit straight from the field.
A Good Season
As August 2009 begins, harvesting comes into full swing as crops are cleaned of their fruit just ahead of the coming fall. Berries consistently face foes such as cool temperatures that slow the ripening process and diseases that can damage crops. “Mother Nature likes to throw a wrench into the process once in a while,” said Kamp. While fixed irrigation has eliminated drought as one of the dangers to his farm, winter injury to the flower buds and spring frost during the bloom period still remain the biggest threat to growing large crops. Nevertheless, industry reports have said Maine and Canadian harvests could top 240 million pounds this season, signaling an above-average year for farmers like Bridges and Kamp.
It’s clear that the Wild Blueberry comes by its mystique naturally, and the August harvest only adds to its mysterious appeal. Some might say little has changed since 1874: this premium fruit depends on the same factors it did over a century ago: weather, dedicated farmers, and hard working crews who capture the natural essence of the Wild Blueberry and bring it to the consumer to enjoy its “premium by nature” qualities year-round.
