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From: Mike Duffy <mxduffy@bell.net>
Subject: Re: Blueberries -- fresh vs frozen
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Date: 20 Mar 2025 18:43:10 GMT
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On 2025-03-20, dsi1 wrote:

> Where do the wild blueberries
> grow? Alongside the road? In the forests?

Full sun, thus not too deep into tall forests.

> How are they harvested and by whom?
> Nomads? Mountain people?

My brother is one of the 'serious' ones. By that
he means that you need to use topographic maps to
find areas that are at least an hour or two walk
from any 4-wheel ATV trail or canoe-navigable waterway.

Otherwise the bushes will be depleted by weekenders
just going in as a family affair to get enough for
a pie or so.

Be sure to bring:

- The biggest bottle of bear spray you can get ahold of.
My brother was a police officer, so he has one of the
para-military crowd-control models that can shoot a
stream of concentrated capsicum a dozen meters or so.

- Depending on wind, an insect bonnet can be helpful.
Remember, blackflies feed only on blueberry pollen
and on bird or mammal blood.

- Enough porous (heavy-duty paper) bags to prevent the
berries from loosing their 'bloom'. (The dust on the
surface that gives them their blue colour EVERY time
they touch anything, including each other. It you
overfill, the bootom berries will loose much of their
bloom during your return to civilization, drastically
reducing their wholesale value. If you are lucky(?),
you may end up returning by walking twice as far
carrying half the load each segment.

- Standard bush 'overnight' bag. (Firestarter /
 GPS / Cell phone, flashlight, freon horn,
1st aid kit, water, DEET, mosquito bonnet,
BGBs (tent / raincoat / ground sheet) &c)

> Is it just a marketing term?

No. The bushes are in no way trimmed,
fertilized, weeded, &c. They are wild.