Maine growers are celebrating the fourth annual Wild Blueberry Weekend, where farmers welcome visitors with tastings of all types of blueberry products and offer tours of their blueberry fields and processing facilities.
Eric Venturini is Executive Director of the Wild Blueberry Commission. He said the event has really promoted blueberry farmers in Maine.
"The producers that have participated in Wild Blueberry Weekend the past several years have told us that it has generated interest in their operation, customer loyalty, and they get calls weeks before the event and weeks after asking where they can get wild blueberry products and looking to visit the farms," Venturini said.
Severine Welcome of Smithereen Farm in Pembroke said that she will be offering wild blueberry hand pies from 10 am to 3 pm Sunday. She said Maine Wild Blueberries are distinct from other varieties in several ways.
"The advantage is you have a native perennial system in a diverse landscape. It grows on its own, its happy and low input and very healthy. It's very heterogenous genetically. As a result, these are more resilient to climate change," Welcome said.
Welcome said harvesting has been underway for two weeks and big deliveries are going three times a week to distributor Crown of Maine and then on to Boston. She said at the end of the harvest they will make sundried leftover berries they call Downeast Caviar. Welcome also helps the Passamaquoddy Tribe sell their freeze-dried berries.
Venturini said farms often see thousands of guests during the weekend. Find a farm to visit at wild blueberries.com.
He said blueberry farmers harvest 50 million to 100 million pounds of Maine's iconic fruit each year, depending on the weather.