By Karen, Casco Bay Island
Posted Friday, August 19, 2005

Blueberries For Karen
It's wild blueberry season.. Let the picking begin!

Sal (Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey) was definitely on my mind, when I gathered my blueberry rake and Tupperware pail to go blueberry picking this morning. I think of her every year when the island's wild blueberries are plump, and purple and sweet. Remembering her adventures in the blueberry barren makes me smile and keeps my mind off of the back-breaking work involved in picking berries!

Since there are still many white and pink berries among the ripe ones, the rake was out. To get my berries today, I have to hand pick them. I always start right near the road.. carefully pulling the ripe berries off of the low bushes, trying not to mourn the loss of the ones that slip through my finders, or pop off into the air. I start out determined to pick the easy ones, and keep my feet out of the uneven barrens and on the cleared path, but it never takes long before a plump cluster just a little way into the bushes beckons me and I wade in. Why is it the best berries are always just out of my reach?

Once into the bushes, I find I'm not picking alone anymore. The bees buzz around the nearby rugosa roses reminding me to stay away from the tiny thorned bushes decorated with their bright pink wild roses. Dragon flies, mosquitoes and other unnamed flying critters flit around my head and shoulders making me wish I had remembered the deet. I do my best to avoid the silver threads of the spider webs, confident that these traps were not spun to catch me; hoping the spiders remember that. There won't be any bear cubs following along to eat my precious cargo... but I see Sal and her hungry cub in my mind's eye as I continue to wander deeper into the barren in search of perfect clusters of ripe berries.

Like Sal, I cannot resist sampling along the way.. The berries are warmed by the morning sun as I pop a few into my mouth. They really are absolutely delicious... small bursts of flavor much more intense than their larger cultivated cousins that you see in the grocery store. My goal today is the four cups I need to make a pie, so I try to remind myself that eating my harvest just prolongs my time bent over the bushes.

Did I mention the barrens are uneven? The thick bushes conceal the rocks and crevices below and with my usual grace, I nearly tumble over several times. Some stumbles cost me a few berries, as they bounce out of my bucket as I bounce along. When Michael comes along to check on my progress, I wisely have him transfer my berries from bucket to Ziplock bag for safe keeping, before I wander on... "Just fifteen more minutes?" I promise.

I want to stop.. my back hurts, and I'm really starting to feel the heat of the sun on my shoulders and neck; but the berries are calling me.. Just "over there" I spy another thick cluster.. and so I wander on, picking, and sampling, and adding to my bucket until Michael insists it's time to stop. What a good man.. he knows I rarely stop doing anything when I should.

Eyeballing my bag and bucket, I see I've reached my goal. I think of the of wild berries I saw on sale at the local roadside stand yesterday... $4.99 for a quart! Mine are much more dear!

The berries are plentiful this year... If you're in the neighborhood, bring your pail.. Sal and I will be waiting for you to join us in the barrens.

POSTSCRIPT:
My attempts to make blueberry jam continue to yield only a strange gluey concoction unsuitable for much of anything. I'm about to give up. However, I did manage to make some absolutely delicious blueberry tartlets with lime curd. I HIGHLY recommend the recipe.

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