CHERRYFIELD, Maine — Down East Maine is swimming in wild blueberries, as growers large and small report a plentiful crop as the annual harvest winds down.
“It’s been a good year, and we’ll go into September,” said David Yeattes, farm manager for Cherryfield Foods, which harvests 4,600 acres of berries in Washington County. “There was some heat stress on fields that were not irrigated, but overall we are seeing good yields.”
David Yarborough, wild blueberry specialist for University of Maine Extension, said he expects this year’s crop statewide will approach 100 million pounds. While that’s not a record crop, it’s up significantly from last year’s harvest of 83 million pounds.
“Yields have been higher on the coast than inland, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 pounds per acre,” Yarborough said. “The barrens in Township 22 have had the best crop ever. The coastal areas have had more rain. The size of the berries have been quite variable. The rain plumps them right up, which increases the weight, which is great for growers who are selling berries to processors by the pound.”
Del Emerson is harvesting 20-plus acres of blueberries in Addison. Most growers sell their berries to processors who turn them into juice or ingredients for food products ranging from muffin mixes to snack bars. Emerson sells fresh berries through a co-op that provides berries that are ultimately sold frozen by the pint at supermarkets such as Hannaford.
“The quality is good this year,” he said. “Last year we had yields between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds per acre, and I expect we’ll get at least that this year. While the growers who sell to processors want more rain, I don’t. We have to have our berries dry to process them.”
Edward Hennessey Jr. and his three sons tend 300 acres of barrens in Jonesboro, just west of Machias. They also do contract harvesting for Cherryfield Foods.
“We have some beautiful fields this year,” said Hennessey, who is CEO of Machias Savings Bank but says he has been immersed in blueberry harvesting “all my life.”
Yarborough said he expects berries now being harvested for processing will command last year’s price of 90 cents a pound, or better.
“The yield in Quebec is down, as it is for cultivated berries in Michigan and the Pacific northwest,” he said. “Not everyone in Maine is having a bumper crop, and there may be some softening in price. It will depend on demand and what’s in inventory.”
Del also sells them in freezer-ready boxes to the public. I pick-up around 400lbs each year for family and co-workers from him. They were so plump this year, that they burst at the slightest touch. Everyone was still happy despite this.
I went to McDonalds today for some oatmeal with blueberries. These were out of state highbush blueberrys.they said it was a promotional special and is no longer being served and all they had was some other fruit stuff that I don’t care for. No plain oatmeal there either.
hello McDonalds start getting local blueberries for your oatmeal and I will start going to your drive up window again. thank you very much!
Great news for Washington County!
Ah, yes. Another puff piece on “wild” blueberries that are no more wild than the apples you buy in the store. Unless they’re labeled USDA Organic.
All not marked USDA Organic have been sprayed with pesticides – fungicides, herbicides, powerful insecticides which poison the entire region, including people, wildlife, and fisheries.
Organic blueberries are selling for the same price as the chemical-grown blueberries right now; organic growers sell out rather quickly because who would knowingly buy poisoned fruit?
Pummeled with pesticides, flamed with burning oil, frizzled with fertilizers, out-competed in the fields by alien grasses the growers themselves brought in, these unwild plants are mistreated year after year. Wonder they produce at all.
You can easily see the fields where the alien grass has taken over completely. Many smaller growers have given up those fields to the alien grass because they either can’t afford OR – one hopes – their consciences won’t let them pour huge amounts of poisons on the ground to kill the “grass which cannot be killed” – – poisoning our groundwater, which is our drinking water.
Here’s how it works: the large blueberry companies (Cherryfield Foods is a Canadian company) poison our water and create dead zones where nothing will grow, not even blueberries, then move on to new fields, leaving us with dead land and poisoned waters.
Quite disgraceful that the BDN – year after year – refuses to even say the word “pesticide” in connection with the unwild blueberries.
They do know better, but apparently, they, along with the unwild blueberry growers, believe that we, the people who live Downeast, don’t count for much so they can poison our water with impunity.
To the big growers, MONEY IS ALL THAT MATTERS. They get the money; we get the poisons in our woods, waters, wildlife, fisheries, and in our bodies where these poisons eat away at our health.
I see Debbie’s rake has 2 handles, my 60 prong rake I used 30 yrs ago had only one… Must be a new thing.