Wild Blueberries

One the many reasons that I enjoy returning to work in the Mackenzie area definitely has to be the blueberries.  Sure, I enjoy eating commercial blueberries but they are not nearly as good as wild ones.  Blueberries even grow around some of the net lanes at the banding station, but my favourite place to go pick them is a cutblock along a bank overlooking Williston Lake.  It’s a lovely, peaceful place on a sunny afternoon, which can also be good for birding– three arctic terns flew by the other day.  And the berries are lovely.

Velvet-leaved blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides)

(with reindeer lichen)

There are also other tasty berries to be found, such as

Saskatoon (Amelanchier alnifolia)

and wild raspberries (with blueberries here.)

I picked enough blueberries to eat them by the handful and on top of my morning porridge (Red River cereal with maple syrup and wild blueberries– how Canadian is that?) for several days.  Then, inspired by the haskup jam I bought while strawberry picking, I picked enough to make jam when I came home to visit my parents on my days off.  Come back tomorrow to read about that!  I’m also taking my dehydratory back with me to make dried blueberries with future pickings.

Have you had wild blueberries?  (I met someone this summer who hasn’t!)

Are there wild berries where you are?

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