Blueberry bonanza

We planted our blueberry bushes two years ago, the first summer we moved into our new (to us) home. I know it takes a while for blueberries to gear up their production; but once mature, the bushes can be amazingly abundant and produce for a quarter-century or more.

Last year, I harvested a modest one pound of fruit. It was such a small amount that it wasn’t worth canning up, and I’ve just kept the bag in the freezer.

Last summer, I also spent a lot of time correcting some of the mistakes I made in planting, notably weed control. This summer, I looked forward to a better harvest.

I just didn’t anticipate how much better it would be. The teaser came last May in the form of many flowers.

The flowers weren’t just abundant, they were much larger than the flowers on the blueberries in our old garden. (Different variety.)

By early July, the promise of an abundant harvest was obvious.

Even more interesting, these berries were shaping up to be huge.

I picked the earliest ripe berries just before Older Daughter and I departed on our road trip to visit my parents. (In my eagerness, I also picked a few that weren’t quite ripe.)

This meant Don was responsible for picking (and watering) for the duration of my absence, poor guy.

By the time I got home, he’d already filled an entire gallon-sized bag of blueberries. (We freeze them until the harvest is complete, at which point I can them.)

Many of these fruits were enormous!

I’ve been picking daily for the last few weeks, since the different varieties we planted are ripening at different times. Usually I’ll get only a couple of cups of berries per day, but day after day that adds up.

(Yesterday I also came across this webbing connecting two leaves. I wasn’t sure what it was – it didn’t seem like a spider egg sac – so out of an abundance of caution, I pinched off the leaves and tossed them over an embankment. The last thing I need is tent caterpillars making a mess out of the blueberries.)

Each day I sort the berries to remove any debris, then bag them up and freeze them.

So far I’ve got two full gallon-sized bags full, not counting yesterday’s harvest.

I was curious, so I weighed what we’ve picked so far, and the total comes to 10.5 pounds, with lots more to come.

The contrast between this year’s harvest and last year’s is staggering. I’m seeing a lot of new growth on the bushes as well, which makes me think next year will be even more abundant. Blueberry bonanza!