This is the last batch of blueberries for 2018. This will be the third year that I've kept track. 2016 is here, and 2017 is here. It really helps me to keep records, and here is why. I thought we had gotten quite a lot of berries this year. But no. Last year the fellow picked from July 31 through August 23. This year, July 28 - August 10.
In 2017 there were a lot fewer than in 2016. 43 quarts down from 61 quarts. We thought it must have been the rainy spring. This year we didn't have a rainy spring but we had exceedingly hot weather, and went weeks without rain. In 2018 we bought only 26 quarts.
Here is the breakdown.
July 28 - 5 quarts
July 30 - 4 quarts
August 2 - 4 quarts
August 4 - 2 quarts
August 6 - 4 quarts
August 8 - 4 quarts
August 10 - 3 quarts
He went up 50¢ a quart, so we paid $6. In all the cost this year was $156.
The fate of the blueberries is much like our gardens this year. The vegetables are doing fine, but the daylilies haven't had a good year. Because it was so very hot, we couldn't get out and weed very much, and there are weeds everywhere. Not just little, easy-to-pull weeds, but tall ones all interspersed among the flowers. I think this is just a year that I must write off, and hope it doesn't come again. We did quite a lot of watering, but it just wasn't enough with the sun beating down relentlessly, day after day.
This year was the worst gardening year for me due to the crazy weather, starting in January. Your blueberry pick is interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting. I'm looking forward to a not hot summer and a not rainy spring to see if they get back on track.
DeleteIt has been mostly very hot and way too dry here for gardens, fields and orchards. Walking through the deer park yesterday evening with O.K. we also noticed how very dry the trees looked, with their leaves turning brown at least a month earlier than expected.
ReplyDeleteFarmers here are very worried and asking the government for help; many of them think they will have to shut shop for good if the harvest turns out to be indeed as meagre as they expect.
And we are all told to expect such summers regularly now.
That is so sad. I wonder if new kinds of irrigation will be found and used. Have there been other such hot years, or is this the first bad one for farmers? As always, it seems, I haven't had chances to check blogs this summer so maybe you have been writing about this.
DeleteI have only written about this in passing, but it has been on our news across all media a lot. It is the second warmest year on record here, but definitely won't remain the last one. Experts say the farmers need to adapt and plant crops that are more heat and draught resistent. Partly, they (the farmers) are also to be blamed for this change in climate, as their methods of farming have for decades now not taken naturally growing plants and wildlife into consideration, and each and every one of those plants and animals are part of the mosaic that makes up a healthy eco system. You see, this whole thing is quite big on my mind these days.
DeleteI've read of this problem in the midwestern US and also in England. Too much mono-crop cultivation, too much weed control. When will they learn. Books were talking about this when I was in my twenties, which is why we are organic gardeners. In this country, there seem to be a lot of organic gardeners, many local and some national. I'm able to buy organically grown food in our co-op year-round. Yes, it costs more, but non-organic costs so much more in the long run. Thanks for writing back.
DeleteWe had terrible times in our garden including the plant we were given as a wedding present 4 years ago almost dying! But now everything's having a second shot at growing and flowering as the temperature dropped and it rained and then it got warmer again. So all very odd.
ReplyDeleteIt is very odd. I'm glad your wedding plant made it!
DeleteI love blueberries but haven't had local ones since my father grew them when I was a child. I buy them in spring when they start coming from Plant City, FL and later they're from NC and then Michigan and now all I can find is from Canada. Except for canned and frozen blueberries I have never had a Maine blueberry that I've read are the queen of blueberries.
ReplyDeletePretty soon I'll just be buying frozen ones. I hope next spring and summer are more what you're used to there.
Are they just not grown locally? If they are in Florida and North Carolina, it sounds like they can grow in a variety of climates. Maybe a good venture for you?!
DeleteIt was so dry this year that our blueberries were a dead loss. Tiny little things quite unpleasant to eat. I don't know what their preferred habitat is but ours are at the top of the garden on a hill and I suspect it doesn't really suit them. Too windy and apt to be dry if there's not enough rain. I tend to end up buying them as I like them for breakfast with other fruit.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be right about the exposed location. I think they might like a more sheltered spot.
DeleteI eat blueberries almost every morning with my yogurt. I love them! We had such a good time picking some when we were in Sequim, WA last month. It would be wonderful to have some of our own, but they won't grown in our dark, damp forest.
ReplyDelete