Fresh blueberries from the forest or your own garden are a true delicacy in fresh and processed form. When collecting the fruits, also known as blueberries, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
What do I need to collect blueberries?
When collecting blueberries, you should take shallow bowls or baskets, knee pads and water to clean your fingers and fruits. Harvest the fruit carefully without layering too much to avoid bruising.
Forest blueberries and cultivated blueberries
The wild blueberries that grow in sparse moor forests and depressions in this country have their harvest time in midsummer over a period of several weeks from around the beginning of July. The cultivated blueberries bred for cultivation in the garden, on the other hand, come from North American varieties and have little in common botanically with the plants growing wild in the forest. While you have to bend down quite far to the forest floor to pick the wild blueberries, cultivated blueberries ripen at eye level on the bushes, which grow to around 2.5 meters high. Wild blueberries have a particularly aromatic taste, but the fruits of cultivated blueberries are larger and juicier.
The correct procedure when collecting
When collecting blueberries in the forest, you should bring the following things with you:
- large and rather shallow bowls or baskets
- Knee cushion for longer picking jobs
- Water for washing fingers and fruits
You shouldn't stack too many layers of blueberries on top of each other in the bowls so that they don't get excessively squashed during transport. In a good season, it may be worth taking a knee pad (€14.00 at Amazon), especially in large clearings with dense blueberry growth. Since wild blueberries have a strong coloring juice, you should have a bottle of water with you. You can use this to clean your fingers or remove any fox tapeworm pathogens that may be present if you want to taste the blueberries directly in the forest.
The storage and processing of blueberries
Blueberries, which are also called blueberries in many regions, are not only a particularly vitamin-rich refreshment when fresh. Since they only last for a few days in the refrigerator, they can be boiled or frozen for longer storage. Frozen blueberries can be used at a later date to make delicious fruit sauces and pastries.
Tips & Tricks
Blueberries collected in the forest and garden have always been used in the natural treatment of he alth problems. Dried blueberries are said to have a regulating effect on many digestive problems.
