# Survival > Foraging & Wild Edibles >  BLUEBERRY Time in the North

## Sourdough

Sweet, juicy, delicious Blueberry's by the billions, You could not go hungry around here for the next 80 Days. Some are splitting open with excess goodness. Salmon and Blueberry's, man the bears have it figured out... :Smile:

----------


## RobertRogers

Yes indeed, here in northern New Hampshire its ripe with wild blueberries.  These juicy delectables help get the bears fat for winter and do pretty well with me too.

Raspberries are going by, but blackberries are ripening and in a few weeks will be in their prime.

----------


## Rick

This is such a great time of year in AK. I would imagine the Salmon are running right now, aren't they? Small streams should to shoulder with them. (Do Salmon have shoulders?).

----------


## trax

blueberries, saskatoons, raspberries are all being picked around here now. It's a wonderful time to be alive.

----------


## nell67

Wish I had some blueberries! Raspberries are over here now,but blackberries are doing very well.

----------


## klkak

Blue berries and service berries are almost ready here and it looks like its gonna be a bumper crop of highbush cranberries this fall.

----------


## Riverrat

Blueberries, raspberries, and soon blackberries....Jams all over the place, gotte love it...

----------


## wildWoman

We're having an extremely dry summer here and all berries except for the soapberries are shrivelled microscopic thingies...just as I was planning on major jam making this year....

----------


## trax

aw that sucks WW, a season without blueberry pie is a season in HELL!! :Frown:

----------


## wildWoman

Yeah...well eat an extra one on our behalf!

----------


## trax

> Yeah...well eat an extra one on our behalf!


Absolutely! Glad I can help!

----------


## Rick

Did you at least get an ice cream while you were in civilization?

----------


## wildWoman

You bet. First thing I did as soon as I reached the village was go into the store and buy icecream. It was only 9am and maybe a weird item to have for breakfast, but oh so good...and then I splurged a couple more times.

----------


## Rick

I sort of knew you would. :Wink:  

Do you still have any ice floating around up there?

----------


## wildWoman

In some places...I went to the very source of the Yukon River, Llewellyn Glacier, and there were icebergs where the glacier calves into a lake. Other than that, it's still summer, but thank god what with the berries ripening and it actually being dark now a few hours at night, it's noticeable that winter is coming! Yippeee!!!!!!!!!

----------


## Rick

Here's a quick recipe I posted elsewhere for ice cream. It only takes about five minutes and I'll bet you could make it there. 

1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)
1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
Ice cubes

1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
4. Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes.
5. Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!

A 1/2 cup milk will make about 1 scoop of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don't increase the proportions more that that -- a large amount might be too big for kids to pick-up because the ice itself is heavy.

----------


## Rick

I've used regular table salt and it works just fine and so does 1% milk. I haven't tried powdered milk but it should work as well. It's more like a thick custard but it's still good. And it WILL give you a brain freeze!

----------


## wareagle69

we are haveing a banner year here for berries paper said 40 days of rain out of the last 50 days lots of folks whining means we are also have a bumper crop of skeeters but i have learned that if i do not scratch the bite in the first 20 minutes then it goes away also jewelweed helps we are making rasberry jam this weekend

----------


## Ole WV Coot

Plentiful didn't make it to WV. I paid $5 last night for 2 little plastic cartons, kinda like my Grandpa raising 300 acres of potatoes and getting the same price per barrel as a large serving of french fries back in 1960.

----------


## wareagle69

blueberries are starting to dry up but me and mrs eagle pickes a couple quarts of raspberries i didn't realize how many plants i had out there in the bush there are acres of them but way more diffucult to pick and do not last near as long but we frooze some and mrs says will make jam this fall

----------


## Sourdough

WE, I have in the past run a lawn mower down raspberry patch to make rows, like grape vines. It makes for easier picking, and they flourish.

----------


## wareagle69

good i dea hard to do where i am at but i was thinking along the same lines for next year tons of breaken ferns and such blocking my sunlight also noticed that the bushes next to the trail semed to have better sized berries so will add that to my long list of stuff to do next spring, geeze this homesteading thing is hard on a lazy fella.

----------


## Beo

Blueberries, blackberries (my favorite), raspberries, strawberries, I love all those berries and now I'm hungry for them!!!

----------


## nell67

Beo! I just picked 15 gallons of blackberries the last 2 days,and have a gallon and a half of blueberries that I am making into blueberry pie filling this morning.

----------


## nell67

Ok,I made pie filling,and jam out of the blueberries,this morning I opened a jar of the blueberry jam and had some on a fresh hot buscuit,wow,I think I have a new favorite jam!!!!!!

----------


## Rick

WE - I was reading about mowing raspberries last night. Hopeak is right on the money. Gurney's latest catalog says, "Simply mow canes after frost - they'll be back next year with extra-sweet juicy fruit." So get that mower out. Three more days until frost in the hinter lands. :Big Grin:

----------


## Beo

Nell, I want some blackberries... NOW!!!!

----------


## nell67

Well come on over big brother,I am STILL working them up,and they want me to come back this evening,what am I gonna do with all those blackberries,HELP!!!!! :Wink:  ABout a 2-2 1/2 hour drive,and you can have just about all the blackberries you can handle!

----------


## nell67

Psst,send me your addy,and I will send you a couple of jars of blackberry jam :Big Grin:

----------


## Rick

$4.00 a quart everywhere I stopped yesterday.

----------


## nell67

Rick,these aren't costing me anything but gas and time to go get them,the old couple have picked more than they wanted,have sold some,and are now BEGGING people to take them,and having a very hard time getting anyone to come and get them for free.THey are tame berries,so they don't even have to worry about thorns,sad really,and I hate seeing all that go to waste....

----------


## Riverrat

Man, wish I was close, it has been raining so much here the berries are just not coming out yet.....we did good on the strawberries, raspberries, but nothing yet on the blackberries....has rained everyday for the last two weeks, at least an hour a day. water everywhere here. River and brooks are running at spring time levels.

----------


## nell67

Riverrat,these things are HUGE,the old couple keep saying they have never seen them set on like this before,and the canes are loaded,they have already picked more this year than the canes even produced last year!

----------


## Riverrat

oh yeah...rub it in...lol. If we get a chance to pick here, it will be a great year as well, just need some sun for then to start ripining.

----------


## Ole WV Coot

They are so expensive here the stores have armed guards and a metal detector. You arrange financing first, pay the manager and get an escort to your vehicle. Don't lose your receipt and don't try to munch the merchandise

----------


## nell67

You guys are makin' me feel bad  :Big Grin:  :Big Grin:

----------


## Bibow

filled up on saskatoons i just wish i could be pickin blueberries now last time i was out they weren't ready :Frown:

----------


## trax

Yeah, I was up in the Duck Mountain park and the raspberries were tiny and the blueberries weren't ready at all. Everything's late this year because of the crappy spring we had Bibow. Saskatoons seem to survive everything though.

----------


## Bibow

yep the blueberries are green berries and the rasberries are horrible atleast we have our saskatoons. made up a batch of saskatoon bannock mmm :Big Grin:

----------


## VampireRanger676

really is blue blooming up there cause I know down here they are all just starting to die ours bloomed in the spring and man was there a ton

----------


## Rick

I' going to order some thornless blackberry plants and put them out this fall. Hopefully, I'll have some tame ones next year. I'm putting in a paw paw tree, too!

----------


## crashdive123

I've learned something early today.  I had never heard of a paw paw tree.  I looked em up, and they sure look interesting.  I'm planning on putting in a Meyers Lemmon tree at the end of summer.

----------


## Ole WV Coot

> I've learned something early today.  I had never heard of a paw paw tree.  I looked em up, and they sure look interesting.  I'm planning on putting in a Meyers Lemmon tree at the end of summer.


Not really a big tree, more of a big bush. They have a smell that is like nothing else. Large seeds and when they look like they are too old they are just right to eat. Soft and black outer skin is ripe, the green fruit may give you a tummy ache. They are wild in this area, always have been.

----------


## North of Tension

We had an awful strawberry season but Raspberries making up for it.  We put up 10 jars of jam on Sunday afternoon and had enough left over to mash some with some sugar for compote and had it over a decadent apple crisp and vanilla ice cream after dinner that night! (Mrs. NT had me bucking up wood and doing heavy lifting most of the day so it was okay- I used up my calorie rqmt for the day!)
-NT

----------


## nell67

> I' going to order some thornless blackberry plants and put them out this fall. Hopefully, I'll have some tame ones next year. I'm putting in a paw paw tree, too!


Uh huh,the wife is making you buy a pawpaw tree after all isn't she?? You're going to be in my area ,I told you you could have one (or 2 or 3) of them!

----------


## nell67

> I've learned something early today. I had never heard of a paw paw tree. I looked em up, and they sure look interesting. I'm planning on putting in a Meyers Lemmon tree at the end of summer.


Pawpaws are great crash,kind of taste like a mild banana,and you can use them in recipes instead of bananas,mash the ripe fruit and freeze for later use,and they have more protein than most other fruit.

----------


## crashdive123

Cool - (having said that) how do they do in the heat?

----------


## nell67

No problems with that crash,hey grow up here in the heat and humidity just fine,in your area,you should be able to find ones that are green year round,the ones here,are aclimatized to the seasons,so they lose their leaves in the fall.

They will grow well in the shade of the woods,or the full sun of your yard.

----------


## crashdive123

Hmmm.  I've got TDW talked into the Meyers Lemmons....still working on Oranges and Grapefruit.  May have to add another to the list.

----------


## nell67

Here is a good link on them:

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pawpaw.html

I have a sister in Lakeland,who has a couple of pawpaws in her yard,and they do just fine.

----------


## crashdive123

Thanks.  We're definitely good on the 160 frost free days.  Sometimes the 400 hours of winter chill is hard to come by.

----------


## nell67

LOL,I lived in Florida when I was small,and I remember not being all that fazed when it snowed one morning,but my cousins didn't have a clue what that stuff was,they had never seen it before.

----------


## Ole WV Coot

Nell you didn't tell him about the bees & yellow jackets not to mention wasps that love the mushed up fruit. Ah well, he will find out anyway.

----------


## crashdive123

Cool.  I can toss a couple of fruits in potential customers yards. :Big Grin:

----------


## nell67

> Nell you didn't tell him about the bees & yellow jackets not to mention wasps that love the mushed up fruit. Ah well, he will find out anyway.


Coot,some things are better left to find out for ones self :Big Grin:

----------

