Blueberry Harvest, 2025

 I started harvesting blueberries on June 17.  The bushes were heavily-laden with berries, some of which are the biggest I have ever seen on my bushes.

 

 

The harvest is continuing in early July, but the berry quality is deteriorating.  As it turns out, June 17 was about the time the rain stopped. Summer droughts in north Georgia are not uncommon, but this year the rain held up very well until mid-June before the precip switch got turned off.  June overall was wetter than average at 4.8", but it was unevenly distributed.  I'm now watering all plants, but usually that just enables them to hold on.  The soil wicks away any water I put down fairly quickly.  Still, I'm at about 14 pounds and counting...

  

 

Spring Freezes

 It has happened before.  In north Georgia, it's actually pretty common.  Early-blooming fruit trees and bushes, like blueberries and pears, are very susceptible to March freezes.  This cold season has had more than normal.

February was very warm for the second half of the month; it may have even gotten to 80 where I live (in Atlanta, it did reach that temperature).  Most things started to come out of dormancy. Then things cooled in March.  There have been a number of days with highs in the 50s and lows in the 20s.  I had two mornings where the lows were 22 and 21.  Both mornings, it was below 28 for hours, and below 25 for at least four hours.  That pretty much trashed the blueberries for the year and it put a dent in the Kieffer pears that had already bloomed.

All is not lost--in the pictures above, there are a couple of fruits that may have survived, and my other two pears are blooming this year--the buds are not really open to any degree yet.

Blooms on the other two pears are a nice surprise.  About 10 years ago, I planted Seckel and Magness pear trees, but they had never bloomed despite growing well.  The Kieffers both got fireblight really bad a couple of years ago--I had to cut one back to the stump--but the Seckel and Magness were untouched.  However, neither had bloomed.  I even thought about tearing them out.  Fortunately, they're blooming later.  If there are no more low-20s mornings, I may actually get some fruit off of them.

The blueberries are probably about 90% lost.  Alas.

Lower-Carb Blueberry Pie

 I've posted before about using almond flour for pie crust to lower the carb content of a pie.  I haven't done this for fruit pies previously, mostly because fruit pies typically have some sort of top crust.  I decided to give it a try with a topless blueberry pie.

I used my go-to recipe for the almond flour pie crust:

1 1/2 c almond flour

2 tbsp Whey Low D

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 c almond oil (or butter, or coconut oil)

I mixed this up and pressed it into the pie plate:

The filling ingredients I got from a recipe online somewhere, but don't have the link:

1 1/4 c Whey Low D (as a lower-carb replacement for sugar)

1/3 c clear jel (as a low-carb replacement for flour)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

5 c blueberries

The powdered ingredients are substantial:

 

In the shell, ready to go in the oven:

 

 As usually seems to happen, the crust got a little over-done, at least in appearance (after about 40 minutes at 425).

I don't have any pictures of what happened when it was cut open, but I have not had much success in getting blueberry pie filling to  hold together.  It tends to fall apart when cut, and that held true this time, as well.  Still, it was no worse than normal.  This was my first attempt with clear jel, and I thought that might be the solution (as well as lowering the carb count).  However, it didn't work out as hoped.  The crust's flavor was fine, even though it was dark.

The blueberries themselves have a lot of carbs, of course (about 18 net grams per cup, accoring to Fat Secret).  Assuming the Whey Low D has about 20% of the carb hit of regular sugar (see discussion here), the carb load for the entire pie would be about 300 grams, or 38 grams per slice.  That isn't exactly great; it's a pretty solid hit for someone who has carb issues.  However, it compares very favorably to a pie made with wheat flour and sugar, which would be around 150 grams per slice (increasing to about 168 grams if a top crust is added).  Relatively speaking, it's not bad--though a nut-based pie would be much lower.

It's something potentially useful to keep as an option for lower-carb baking.

Beginning of the Blueberry Harvest, 2020

It's blueberry time.  I've moved, and don't have the five fairly mature bushes that I used to have, but I have five new ones (one of which has not yet produced much).  I won't get 20 pounds off of them this year, but may end up with as much as 6 pounds.  I'll be doing some blueberry preserves soon.

They started ripening in late June, and look like they will continue for another week or so--that's pretty similar to my experience at the old place.  The four producing bushes are largely the same as what I had before, mostly rabbiteyes and of the same varieties that worked well at my former house (Climax, Tifblue, Powderblue).   I have enough for a load of blueberry preserves.

Dehydrating Blueberries, 2017

I've written before about dehydrating blueberries.  I haven't dehydrated any of my home-grown berries yet, but I do get a few two-pound clamshells during peak blueberry season (which is now).  This year prices are up a little; as noted previously, south Georgia got hit by the same freeze that impacted my blueberries.  Many commercial rabbiteye farmers lost their whole harvest.

Commercially-bought blueberries can be sketchy.  I always pick through them carefully and usually find a few that are moldy or otherwise a mess.  Interestingly, even when I keep my home-picked ones in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, they don't mold--which makes me wonder what the delay between picking and purchasing is normal for commercial berries.

As I sort them, I dump them into a colander, then rinse them off.  Various sites indicate that conventionally-grown blueberries usually have a variety of pesticide residues on them.  I'm not sure why: I don't have to spray mine for anything, bugs or plant diseases.  They are a truly zero-maintenance crop.

This year, I got six pounds at a warehouse club.  In late June, they were coming from New Jersey.  The origin of spring and summer blueberries shifts around, from Georgia to North Carolina, then New Jersey.  In August, they usually seem to come from Michigan.

Drying them is easy.  As I mentioned before, I don't try to prick them with a toothpick.  I do too many at once for that to be viable, and it's unnecessary.  I let them dry for a couple of days at 135 and they're dry enough to store long-term without molding.

The final result is shown below:  contained in the half-gallon mason jar is what's left of six pounds of fresh blueberries after dehydrating (there's room for another couple of pounds' worth).  They could be vacuum-packed to extend their shelf life, but even as-is, should be good for a couple of years.

End of the Blueberry Harvest

As noted previously, this was a lighter than normal blueberry season.  In terms of duration it was also shorter than normal, at about two weeks.  Last year I picked for nearly a month.  This year, toward the end of June, I pulled off what will probably be the last berries I pick.

As the pictures show, there are some berries that aren't even close to ripe yet; that's how my blueberry bushes are.  However, most of what's left is over-ripe (meaning I didn't spend enough time picking while they were at peak), and they're getting infested with ants at this point, making it necessary to carefully check almost every berry to be sure it's not frass-bedecked and hollowed out.

I ended up with about eight pounds, or 40% of what I got last year.  That's pretty decent.  I could've gotten ten pounds if I'd picked more frequently (but last year when I got 20, I could've probably gotten 22 or 23).  All in all, I'm happy with the way things turned out.

Post-Freeze Blueberry Harvest Begins

As I mentioned in March, there was a late freeze that did substantial damage to the blueberry blossoms.  It soon became apparent that there was some hope for a crop, as noted in the earlier post.

Fast-forward to mid-June and the harvest is beginning.  Last year I started picking berries on June 15, but this year, I could've started on June 6 or so.  I wasn't paying close attention so was surprised when I was down by the bushes and saw they were loaded.  The first day I pulled off 2 pounds and if I had to guess I'd expect this year's total harvest to be about 6-8 pounds, which is down from last year's 20--but not at all bad under the circumstances.

Freeze Aftermath

As feared, last week there were a couple of very cold nights:  The first night, the temp dropped down to about 25.5 or so and stayed below 28 for 5 hours.  The second night was similar.  For comparison, I'm reposting the pictures from a week and a half ago, before the freeze:

I definitely had losses to my blueberries, but it's not all bad.  If there's no more killing-cold weather, I might get  a crop that's 30%-50% of normal (then again, maybe not: some of the blooms that look like they might be okay may not be).  South Georgia fared worse; for whatever reason some of the blueberry regions were colder than north Georgia--as low as 22.  The rabbiteye farmers had total losses in many cases (rabbiteyes are what I grow, as well).  Georgia won't lead the country in blueberry production this year...

Things Are Blooming

The Bradfords around town have been in full bloom for a while at this point: they were opening up in late February.  My blueberries are blooming now and my aronia bush has been in bloom for a while, as well.

The aronia is interesting.  I got it because the juice is commercially available--meaning at some level it's palatable--and I was swayed by nursery descriptions of it being sweet.  There is a hint of sweetness, but a lot of astringency.  The only way I've managed to make it work is to put the berries in with cranberries for sauce; I have served a mix of cranberry and aronia berry sauce at Thanksgiving a couple of times.

As can be seen, the berries from last fall are still on the bush: I didn't even pick very many of them last fall, because I think I'm pretty much done with aronia.  The birds didn't even take them.  I tried one a couple of days ago and it's about the same: slight sweetness with a barrel full of astringency.  I have never successfully eaten one raw.  I always spit them out.

However, it does sucker a little and the flowers are nice and are also pleasantly fragrant.  So it's not a total loss.

The blueberries are in full bloom, and that's not necessarily a good thing.  Another cold night looms, which might wipe out the crop (again; this happened just a couple of years ago).

For now, spring is here.  Next week, it might leave for one or two fateful days.

Blueberry Preserves

I do things other than mix sugar-laden preserves with the fruit I grow and buy.  However, preserves are easy to make; they maintain quality for a long time (at least four years); and they are a good thing to give people.  Pickled carrots might not be accepted by everybody, but (almost) nobody will turn down preserves of some sort.

That being said, I don't like blueberry preserves all that much.  They're fine, but not as good as peach preserves.  The blueberry flavor is not that strong in the finished product; it's more just sweet.

I got a good harvest this year and did one canner load (six pints) of preserves (the canner will hold more, but six pints is a manageable quantity).

SureJell's package insert has a recipe, but I don't see it at quick glance on their website. It's just four cups crushed blueberries, four cups sugar, one package pectin. This produces three pints, so it could be doubled.   By the way, it's a standard admonition to avoid doubling a jam or preserves recipe because there may be problems with fruit set.  I am happy that I have never had any problem doing that; it's more efficient that way.

Pickyourown.org has a recipe that starts with 10 cups of blueberries (intact), 7 cups of sugar, and 1/4 cup lemon juice, plus water and one package of pectin.  I don't add water but otherwise followed this recipe (bumped up slightly with 11 cups of blueberries, 7.5 cups of sugar, and an extra teaspoon of lemon juice because the recipe otherwise yielded about 5.75 pints the first time I tried it).

Blueberry preserves are just about the easiest kind to make.  Rinse the berries; measure the right quantity; stomp them a bit with a potato masher; heat with pectin and lemon juice; add sugar when it boils; return to a full boil for one minute; then fill jars with 1/4" headspace and process about 15 minutes (I'm at 1200' elevation so added 5 minutes to the sea-level recommendation of 10 minutes).

That's about it.

What did I do with the remaining 15 pounds of berries? I froze some, which can later be turned into pies or even more preserves, and ate the rest fresh.

As I noted last year, blueberries can be cheap at the peak of the harvest (here in Georgia, both Sam's and Costco had them for $4.98 for two pounds in July). That means I saved myself about $50 by harvesting my own bushes.  Considering the time it took, in an economic sense I'm probably not coming out very far ahead. I was picking every two to four days for almost a month, from mid-June to mid-July.  But I like doing it myself (this is not to say that I didn't buy some, as well, and dehydrate them).

Taking Advantage of Peak Blueberry Season

Here in GA, blueberries are usually at their most available and least costly a couple of weeks on either side of July 4th. Sometimes there's another period of similar pricing in mid-August.  While fresh ones can be had year-round, and are readily available from about April through September, they can be expensive outside of peak North American production months.  What's showing up now are berries from New Jersey; recently it was North Carolina; before that it was Georgia and Florida; soon it will be Michigan.  Georgia, btw, is the biggest producer of blueberries in the country (at least in 2014, but production has been ramping up a lot in the last few years).

For me, 2014 was a good year, too--my five rabbiteye blueberry bushes produced 20 pounds.  This year, about a handful.  In late March, it dropped to about 24 degrees when the plants were nearly in
full bloom.  I tried hosing them down at 4 am, to no avail.

So I'm on the blueberry market this year.  I like them and eat a fair amount.  If you want them year-round, it makes sense to stock up now.  While you can get them later, you can end up paying more than shown at right for less than half as many. That's what they were going for at Sam's Club yesterday.

If you buy now, you need to preserve them somehow.  The easiest is freezing, and I froze about 6 pounds' worth today (and froze the same last summer from my own bushes).  I use frozen ones for pies.  Another way is to make preserves, which I also did last year.  And they can be dehydrated.

Dehydrating is pretty easy.  I pick over them to pull out the moldy ones (sometimes that isn't an issue, but it often is with store-bought berries), wash them, dump them onto a dehydrator tray, and subject them to a 135-degree breeze for two days.  What's left is a pile of shriveled berries dry enough to keep without molding in the container.

Some people recommend poking each berry with a toothpick, and you can see why at the right.  Some of them end up looking like little balloons--however, they will still dry out even if not pricked.  That's too much time and effort, and if I tried to do it, I'd still miss some.  I shy away from methods that require intensive handling or processing whenever possible.


One does have to be careful to check to be sure they are really dried out.  I did lose a whole container of berries one time to mold because I didn't get them sufficiently dehydrated.  So I'm a little paranoid about it now.

Some fruits I do not particularly like when dehydrated, but blueberries are okay.  I probably prefer fresh ones, but this is definitely a case of constrained optimization: is a dehydrated blueberry worth at least 40% of a fresh one?  At times, that's the price differential.

It took me a while to get into the swing of various food preservation methods, and I'm still learning new ones (plus learning which ones don't work).  With my own trees, bushes, and garden, it's a must, but it makes sense sometimes with store-bought produce, as well.