Okay. I'm goin' for it. I'm going to write a whole diary about this.
One of Michigan's longest standing industries is in trouble this year, and it needs help.
That's right.
I'm talking about blueberry farmers.
There's way too many blueberries right now. Sitting there, being all succulent and delicious in frozen storage from last year. What WILL we DO with ALL these blueberries?
So Michigan blueberry farmers and other highbush blueberry farmers in like North Carolina and Florida are staring down the barrel of a glut for 2009, from bumper crops for the past 4 years and imports, which means they're teetering on the edge at the crappiest possible time. And if this doesn't sound like a big deal, keep in mind Michigan was the world's largest producer of plantation blueberries until 2007 when it lost its title to Chile. (though Maine is by far the largest overall producer of wild lowbush blueberries)
What's the solution?
Simple.
Pancakes. Blueberry pancakes.
Blueberry Muffins. Tarts. Pie.
EAT BLUEBERRIES! Start local if you can.
Blueberries are native crops, they're healthy, and they're delicious.
Blueberries are native crops:
Blueberries have grown naturally in the north central regions of North America for...well...since forever. The wild lowbush blueberries grow naturally all over the northeast and, the highbush cultivars are the product of selective breeding rather than laboratory genetic engineering. These are natural, native plants that belong here.
Blueberries are healthy:
Or to be more specific they're Extra Super Healthy, with all sorts of crazy nutrients I've never heard of before that supposedly reduce nerve and neurological degeneration, they improve night time vision, and can reduce fat, and even make you taller and more attractive. Okay, not those last two. But they're also one of the highest fruits in antioxidants which fights cancer and deterioration of your, I think the technical term is "guts."
Recent research on the health benefits of fruits has shown that blueberries are one of the most nutritious fruits available. If you're only going to eat one fruit, it should be blueberries. Blueberries can be eaten fresh or in pies, frozen for use in pancakes or muffins, dried and used in recipes instead of raisins, or made into purees, syrup or jam.
-- article
Blueberries are DELICIOUS.
As a kid, my friends and I would go out to the blueberry fields at night while the toads sang their high tunes and we did our part to make sure there was no such glut in blueberry yields. We gorged ourselves on sweet, forbidden blueberries from vast plantations. There's nothing like taking a handful of blueberries and dropping them all into your mouth...a little tangy and a lot of sweet. The new mall was built on top of a small portion of plantations, and between buildings the bushes still grow and produce huge harvests of fruit, which my son and I sometimes go out and pick by the grocery bagful in the summer just for straight eating. We go to the farmer's market for our 10 pound boxes of blueberries for canning.
Blueberry farmer Ken Reender remembers when his competition was down the road. Now his blueberries compete with berries grown all over the U.S., Canada, and the rest of the world.
"Everybody jumped in the act," said Reender. "Then we have the same thing we had with the cherry crop a few years ago."
[snip]
"The economy is down and the crop is up," explained Reender. "The buyers are reluctant to buy right now. When that happens, it slows everything down."
-- article
Michigan grows a third of all U.S. blueberries, but an increase in global production and imports from South America are threatening to sharply drive down prices for this year's crop.
Tejchma said there are several factors that have contributed to the problem in Michigan.here are 68 million pounds of blueberries in Michigan in frozen storage units that are being used at a slow pace," Tejchma said. "We're coming into another crop now for the 2009 season, and this time of year the storage units are usually pretty much empty, and with the poor economy they're not being purchased as fast as they normally would."
--article
Hear that? 68 million pounds.
Get eating!
I say, always eat from local growers first if you can. It helps your community, and as the local produce is exhausted it creates a larger demand down the road for less local but still American farmed foods. I don't care what blueberries you eat, it's bound to help out the blueberry farmers all over.
All I know is, this is just another blow to an ailing Michigan economy at 12.6% unemployment and a local economy at 14.9% unemployment and I'm going to jump up and down and make noise about eating domestically produced foods if I think it's going to help the people here. My wife has some acquaintances who are blueberry farmers and they're not sure if they'll be able to keep farming. Blueberry sales are expected to rise internationally, so it shouldn't be a chronic problem. But this year...OOF.
So...blueberries. They have them at the store. And they're DELICIOUS.
I know, I know. It's asking a lot. Asking people to eat BLUEBERRIES. Ugh. Sacrifices, sacrifices.
Eating local matters. From transportation costs its better environmentally. And it saves jobs, and every one counts.
NOTE: For more affordable blueberries, try the bags of frozen blueberries in the frozen foods area of the store. Those tend to be less expensive than the pints.
Update [2009-5-2 9:5:32 by Muskegon Critic]:
The question has been posted Why are blueberries so expensive if there's a glut?
Good question. And I'm not entirely sure. But I can hazzard a guess.
Right NOW markets are using the frozen supply, which hasn't been affected by the 2009 crop year. But the frozen blueberry supplies haven't been depleted yet, and they usually are by this time. Normally the frozen storage is empty. But it's full...WAY full right now with millions of pounds of blueberries.
Most likely as the 2009 crop comes in this summer you'll see a massive price drop.
Also I don't know if there's a glut of ALL blueberry varieties in all regions...there's the highbush variety and the lowbush variety. The highbush is a cultivar, slective breeding from lowbush varieties. I know there's a glut in the highbush...I don't know about the lowbush. I can only guess they'd affect one another.
It's also been pointed out that it's a very labor intensive crop to harvest, which I can personally attest to. Pick..pick...pick pick...pick...one at a time, like that. And usually during the blazing heat of high summer.
But try the bags of frozen blueberries in the frozen fruits and veggies aisle and that'll probably be quite bit less.
Update [2009-5-2 15:14:35 by Muskegon Critic]:
Several good folks have noted you can buy Michigan blueberries online. Who knew the internets were so useful? ;)
here's the link
http://www.theblueberrystore.com/...