What to Bring:
*A gallon ice cream pail works great for carrying the berries and freezing them later on. It is easy to carry, seals on top, and presents a big target to drop the berries in when you are picking fast.
*A water bottle or two is important to have along. Blueberries are usually located in open areas, where you will be exposed to the sun.
*Bug and sun resistant clothes are very important. I like to use light weight, quick drying, long sleeved shirts and pants. If you use bug repellent, make sure it will not eat your clothes (DEET will destroy a number of materials), and be careful of where you spray it. Remember:
Edible Berries + Bug Spray = Poisonous Fruit
*A first aid kit can be very helpful. It is easy to become scraped or bruised when crawling around in the brush looking for berries.
*Optional items are: binoculars, a camera, and a GPS.
Where to Look:
*Burned areas make for the best blueberries. Statistically, the best blueberries occur 3 - 5 years after a fire.
*Rocky granite hillsides are the best place to look on the Gunflint Trail. Other rocks with a rough texture also work well, such as diabase or greenstone. Avoid the areas that have predominantly smooth rocks such as shale or slate.
Things to Know While Picking:
*Some people are clean pickers, and others are dirty pickers. It is better to be a clean picker. A clean picker picks only the ripe berries on a plant, and leaves the other ones to ripen and seed new plants or be picked by someone at a later date.
*Dirty pickers pick all the ripe and unripe berries on the plant, and later throw away the unripe ones. They are also more likely to use the destructive blueberry rakes which not only strip all the berries, but partially defoliate the plant. To me, this method is like clear cutting a forest, and not planting anything in return. It is wasteful, and is not sustainable in the long run. Plus you have the frustration of having to sort the berries when you want to eat them later on, whereas the clean pickers just have to rinse the berries and enjoy.
*I like to pick the berries with my palm up, pulling the berries off of the plant with my thumb and forefinger. That way, the berries drop right into my hand. If any berries hit the ground, I leave them there to seed new plants.
*If you are going back and forth on the same trail, don't forget to look on the other side of the trees or rocks as you are coming back. In a recent blueberry picking expedition, I found a lot more berries on the way back.
*The freshly burned areas have much thicker foliage than other areas, and it can be easy to get lost. It is a good idea to keep your car, boat, lake, river, or the trail in sight. A GPS unit can also be helpful in getting you back home, however, remember that a GPS is an electronic device that can fail.
*If you pick with a partner, be sure you can trust them before giving away your best berry patches. However, it is fun to have company when you are picking.
*Leave the earbuds or headphones at home. You may hear some great recorded music, but you miss all the live music of the forest.
Preserving your Crop:
*Simply put your ice cream pail of berries directly in the freezer (or add them to one already in there) right after you pick them. Wait to wash them until you are ready to eat them. A lot of people say that you should wash the berries, and freeze them on a cookie sheet with waxed paper. This is adding a step where no step is needed, and adding wax to your fruit as well.
*You can also make preserves, or dry the berries, but I prefer to freeze them.
Identification of Blueberries:
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| For the proper identification of edibles blueberries, you need to look at 3 things: the berries being right on the bush, the type of bush (note leaves), and the 5 pointed crown on each berry. |
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| This is an overall look at the bush and berries. Note that the wild blueberries are not as large as the genetically modified ones you find in the store, but they are a lot more tasty. |
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| Poisonous blue bead lily berries. Note that these are coming out of a lily plant, and are on the end of a long stalk. They also lack the pointed crown of the blueberries. |
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| Please note that the edible blueberries, and the poisonous blue bead lily berries grow in the same habitat, and the poisonous berries can be sitting right next to the edible berry plant. Always look for the 5 pointed crown before consuming the fruit. The berries on the left are the poisonous blue bead lily, and the ones on the right are the edible blueberries. |
