Blueberries and Picking Season 2012

We are pretty sure that a lot of berry-pickers would offer better advice on when or where to pick the best berries on earth, and especially in Europe. For Sweden, we are merely writing down what we experience and notice as the season changes.

Last year seemed like the berry-pickers started early in late June, or we might have remembered it wrong. Then again, winter started late last year so...what is the connection? You just gotta observe the weather when it would be the best to start picking them luscious berries!

This year, it has been said it had not rained in Sweden as much as it did, some decades ago. It could probably have been half a century, but we were not really paying attention. One thing is for sure, rain or shine...winter is the longest season at this part of the world.

Back to this entry, right. Much rain, sun as being just an imagination most of the time around here, even if it was supposed to be summer (sun has been lazy and been hiding behind the clouds!). This kind of weather is good for mushrooms, and berries as well. Sun, rain, sun, rain. These are good combinations SO we have set a day, that became two, and three to go out to the woods and pick us some blueberries.

Although, the picking season might have started early this year by a week or two, but it most definitely usually is in the middle of July to maybe the first week of August, give or take. We went berry-picking last year during the first week, and we found only about 2 or 3 pieces of blueberries!

Anyway, some forests here have blueberry fields...oh, and the vastness almost seemed infinite. 

 

So, we ended up picking almost 2 kilos of blueberries and smultron as well! About smultron, we will save that one for another entry, yes?

On picking blueberries for newbies who were bred at buying anything healthy from a stand or the supermarket and never having the slightest idea of growing their own food, much more picking them, here are some quick tips on how to go about your lovely trip to the forest:

1. Wear protective clothing. We are not Red Riding Hood out in the woods to attract some attention, just in case we forget about that part of the trip. Wear a raincoat or a hooded jacket even if it is a bit sunny (just remove them later when you leave the forest) because we do not really want exposing our skin and ears in the forest, no matter how many anti-mosquito chemicals we apply to our skin. Plus, the fact that it almost always rains when we go to the forest...I always wear long sleeves, at least.
2. Use rain boots. No, you do not want to damage your very fashionable boots, neither any of your Ed Hardy or Converse shoes, especially if you end up in muddy areas looking for mushrooms as well.
3. Anti-Mosquitoes slash fly spray or gel. These insects are just persistent no matter how many chemicals you have put on your skin. They will try to follow you and as soon as the chemicals wear off, they attack like there is no tomorrow. So, apply the chemicals and bring them with you.
4. Bring a sling bag where you can put your containers. When you start seeing blueberry fields, you can never be greedy enough to pluck them all out. There will always be another field on the other side of the forest waiting to be plucked so the best thing to do is just fill up your containers as fast as you can by swinging your bag to your back and start picking with both hands. The bag will also be helpful if it starts raining and you need a firm grip while going through terrain on the way back.
5. Containers should not be huge enough to contain more than 1L of blueberries, as the weight tend to squash the blueberries at the bottom. 
6. Wear deep-pocketed clothes. Sometimes when one kneels down to get berries, a slippery phone like an iPhone falls to the ground without it being noticed. We almost lost one of our iPhones. Phew!
7. Just pick the blue ones (just right), and very dark and almost black blueberries. Leave the violet berries alone, they are not yet ripe to eat. Well, we all know what to do with the green ones. Yes, leave them alone as well =D
8. When picking blueberries, turn them the other way around so that it is easier to just slide your fingers along one stem, and at least six would fall down your bucket faster than you can say, "Woohoo, blueberries!"

Ripe Blueberries

When we got home, we strained them and double-washed by getting the berries from the strainer by hand. We let the cold water run through our fingers while the berries were in it and more dirt came off. Do not use too much water, SAVE WATER! SAVE THE EARTH! =P

Berries that were squashed and those that broke especially while being washed were thrown away. They are either too ripe and we do not really want to find out the effect of eating those, or it might be nature's way of saying that they were not meant to be eaten.

So anyway, we decided to bake some muffins. One recipe for freshly-picked blueberries coming up! For now, one more picture of the blueberries we picked. MUMS FILIBABA!!!!