Blueberry Picking at My Farm

July 23, 2024

It's still berry picking season and the blueberries at my Bedford, New York farm are ripe for the picking!

Plump, juicy, and sweet, with vibrant colors from red to the deepest purple-black, blueberries are one of nature’s finest treasures. I love to use them for jams, jellies, and pies, but they’re also wonderful with cereal, in pancakes and cobblers, and of course, in handfuls on their own. Low in fat, yet packed with vitamin-C and antioxidants, it’s not surprising they’re one of America’s favorite fruits.

Enjoy these photos.

: Blueberries are among the most popular berries for eating. Here in the United States, they are second only to strawberries.

: My blueberries are all from these bushes located between my flower garden and large Equipment Barn, next to a stand of quince trees. The posts are the same 18th-century Chinese granite uprights I use for the clematis pergola, my apple espaliers, and my raspberry bushes.

: Standard blueberry bushes grow about six to 10-feet tall. New shoots grow from the crown under the soil.

: At the base, blueberry shrubs have multiple canes growing directly out of the soil in clumps. The canes or branches are smooth and thornless. These bushes have done so well here at the farm. I am always so pleased with how prolific they are every year.

: There are two types of blueberries, highbush and lowbush. Highbush blueberries are the types you commonly find at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Lowbush blueberries are smaller, sweeter blueberries often used for making juices, jams, and baked goods.

: They are pale greenish at first, and then reddish-purple and finally dark purple-blue when ripe for picking.

: Here, one can see the colors of the berries as they develop – green, then red, then blue.

: When harvesting the fruits, select plump, full berries with a light gray-blue color. A berry with a hint of red is not fully ripened.

: And blueberries don’t actually reach their full flavor until a few days after they turn blue, so a tip to know which ones are the best – tickle the bunches lightly, and only the truly ripe ones will fall into your hand.

: Blueberry bushes have glossy leaves that are green or bluish-green from spring through summer. The leaves are ovate, in an irregular oval or slightly egg shape that is wider at the bottom than the top. Blueberry leaves can also be harvested and dried for teas.

: These bushes are so full! I grow many blueberry varieties, including ‘Bluegold’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Darrow’, ‘Jersey’, and ‘Patriot’.

: Many blueberries also fall to the ground. All those picked are carefully inspected – only the best are saved. And do you know who also loves blueberries? The wild turkeys here love to forage and eat the berries that fall.

: Each of these fruits is about five to 16 millimeters large with a flared crown at the end.

: They were once called “star fruits” by North American indigenous peoples because of the five-pointed star shaped crown.

: Blueberries are also covered in a protective powdery epicuticular wax known as the “bloom”. These berries are just right for picking. Blueberries are high in fiber, high in vitamin-C, and contain one of the highest amounts of antioxidants among all fruits and vegetables.

: We like to pick berries using these small boxes. After they are picked, store blueberries unwashed for a few days in the refrigerator for up to five days.