The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a report on this year’s blueberry harvest and some recipes for putting the blue fruit to use,
Allen Crabtree of Crabtree’s Blueberries in Sebago has a bumper crop of highbush blueberries this year as well.
“I have never seen so many blueberries,” Crabtree said. “We’ve had a pick-your-own operation since 2001, and this is by far the best crop we have had, the most berries on the bushes.”
The Food & Dining section also has a list of blueberry festivals across the state and a directory of pick-your-own blueberry farms.
There’s also a very interesting article on how farmers are trying to attract wild pollinators to to assist with the blueberry crop.
“It looks like a bee, but it’s the size of a housefly,” he said.
But size doesn’t matter when it comes to this hard-working, native pollinator, he said. “They’re about four to five times more effective as spring-season pollinators than honey bees,” said Van Horn, who has tended the organic blueberry fields for more than 35 years.