Grow Healthy, Delicious Blueberries

By Cindy Murphy
Published on February 5, 2009
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Ripe, juicy blueberries, ready to eat, are a tasty nutritional powerhouse.
Ripe, juicy blueberries, ready to eat, are a tasty nutritional powerhouse.
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Pretty blossoms appear in various stages on a blueberry plant.
Pretty blossoms appear in various stages on a blueberry plant.
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Each bloom on this lowbush plant promises a delectable blueberry.
Each bloom on this lowbush plant promises a delectable blueberry.
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Pancakes and blueberries, a powerful and delicious combination.
Pancakes and blueberries, a powerful and delicious combination.
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Combine the wonderful flavors of blueberries and peaches for dessert.
Combine the wonderful flavors of blueberries and peaches for dessert.
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The promise becomes reality when blueberries are ripe and ready to pick.
The promise becomes reality when blueberries are ripe and ready to pick.
SIDEBAR:
Blueberry Salsa Recipe

Henry David Thoreau wrote of the blueberry, “They ripen first on the tops of hills, before they who walk in the valleys suspect it. When old folks find only one turned here and there, children, who are best acquainted with the localities of berries, bring pailsful to sell at their doors.”

We didn’t sell blueberries door-to-door when we were youngsters, but my brothers and I certainly found them in the woods and fields while camping in the northern parts of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, and we ate our fair share. Michigan leads the nation in blueberry production, and going blueberry picking was our family’s summer ritual, whether it was the wild, lowbush species we found in the woods, or the cultivated, highbush varieties we picked at the berry farms.

A New World fruit

Native to North America, wild blueberries grow in swamps, low woods and open fields. There are two species of blueberries, the lowbush (Vaccinium angustifolium), and highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum). Lowbush blueberries are small and generally sweeter, but the highbush blueberry is the species that is cultivated and provides the majority of blueberries found in markets.

Long before blueberries were cultivated, they were featured in the culture, cupboards and pharmacies of Native Americans and colonists. Native Americans taught the first settlers in Plymouth how to dry blueberries; they were used in preserves and breads, and the juice was used to dye clothing.

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