Anyone enjoy lowbush blueberries
- Thread starter freerider
- Start date
Vaccinium vacilluns and hybrid species. I like them some, but I lean toward highbush for the ease and the larger size. There is also a rare dwarf blueberry variety, and some of it is on the pine plains inside the fence. I have a sample from the woods in Bamber too.
I remember vividly my older brother Danny, hunched over in the woods, picking them and shoving them into his mouth, slowly moving further and further away from our new house at dusk, in Presidential Lakes. The year was 1965. I thought he'd never come back.
We were up in downeast Maine last July and they are everywhere up there, none of the 'highbush' variety. Small, but tasty. Makes for a nice snack while hiking around 
I used to eat more of the lowbush variety growing up in the northern part of the state, where highbush blueberry was less common than it is here. I can’t say that I’ve noticed a great difference in taste but like Bob, I lean towards the highbush for ease of filling up a container quickly. I do remember one incident involving eating them that occurred in Ringwood while I was taking a break from fishing for tiny native brook trout on a tributary of the Wanaque River. I was slowly moving through an expanse of lowbush blueberry on my knees, eating as I went. I must have been doing it for over a half hour when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I slowly turned to see a black bear, doing the same thing I was, no more than 50 feet away! He was watching me as well without making direct eye contact. I guess he assumed I was not a threat to him. I kept creeping slowly away from him, trying to look calm as I ate the occasional berry, but my heart was racing! Eventually I slowly rose and walked away, not looking over my shoulder until I was a good distance from the bear. He was still eating, but watching me more directly. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.
I do enjoy these berries and fondly remember eating them by handfuls as a kid. Memory being selective and such, they seemed so much more plentiful then. Perhaps it was a child's eyes looking for the good stuff rather than the adult struggling so hard to take it all in and lose the goodies in the process.
German,
A good tale and a cool head sir. I would have been very unnerved.
Frozen to the spot till I could get my wits about me. At least I would have had the berries. Thanks for sharing that good memory.
Probably gave the bear something to share with his buddies too, what with watching how silly us hairless humans look trying to be all natural and such.
g.
German,
A good tale and a cool head sir. I would have been very unnerved.
Frozen to the spot till I could get my wits about me. At least I would have had the berries. Thanks for sharing that good memory.
Probably gave the bear something to share with his buddies too, what with watching how silly us hairless humans look trying to be all natural and such.
g.
When I was around 7 years old my Grandmother came to visit. She asked me if I would like her to make a blueberry pie and I answered "YES". Then she handed me a bowl and told me to go in the woods across the street and pick enough berries for the pie. Several hours later I had climbed several trees, found some salamanders, kicked a can around and picked about two dozen berries. I brought what I had home and asked if it was enough and Grandma said she would see what she could do. The next day I came in the house after playing all day and there on the counter was a big juicy blueberry pie! I guess she used those special powers that Grandmothers have because what I picked wasn't enough for a muffin.