Frozen Wild Blueberries?

[Trish K]

Hi, ewatkins,
I don't imagine this will be of much help to you, but I had to add my comment anyway. For many years we have vacationed each summer in northern Minnesota near the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area. This part of our beautiful country has the greatest wild blueberries to be found anywhere IMHO. DH picks, we pack 'em, freeze 'em, and haul 'em home, where they are like frozen gold in the freezer all year long until the next summer. We have many "House Specialties" featuring these little wonders, and our friends always expect some sort of blueberry treat when they're at our home. And no way on this earth could I ever let one of those field-grown travesties sold under the name "blueberry" find its way past my lips. Yup -- spoiled for life by knowing what they REALLY taste like.

[dotglee]

We have fabulous fresh blueberries here in the Northwest in the summer, but I like to use wild blueberries in pancakes and muffins the rest of the year. I was used to buying S&W canned ones and I could get two batches from a can. But sometime in the last two years, S&W dropped them! And according to my semi-informed grocery, they also dropped other lines.

So I went Internet shopping and found canned wild blueberries (syrup or water-packed) at a place called candycenter.com. I ordered a case. The brand is Wyman's, which some of you may know.

And yes, I could freeze our local berries, but I am limited in freezer space, and I really like how the wild ones hold together in the pancakes. My family was willing to buy the fresh green chiles shipped from New Mexico, and the Trappist bourbon fudge from Kentucky was great, but they did think this one was a bit weird.

[ewatkins]

These were mentioned in the Blueberry Pound Cake post. After spending summers in Maine as a kid, I am a blueberry snob, and don't care for the big fat cultivated kind. (I'm afraid my daughter is the same way, after picking them each summer.) Where can I find the wild kind?

[valchemist]

I saw them in my grocery store a couple of days ago. They were right next to the regular frozen blueberries. After making the Blueberry Poundcake, I wished I had bought the wild blueberries. I think they would have been better in there. The other ones were so big and juicy that I think they were partly to blame in why my cake stuck to my Bundt pan (but I could be wrong).

[pinotnoir]

Originally posted by ewatkins:
These were mentioned in the Blueberry Pound Cake post. After spending summers in Maine as a kid, I am a blueberry snob, and don't care for the big fat cultivated kind. (I'm afraid my daughter is the same way, after picking them each summer.) Where can I find the wild kind?

Hi, they are readily available in supermarkets, at least here in Philadelphia.
The wild variety have more flavor and have
been recommeded for baking over fresh.

[emilycat]

This is kind of interesting to me -- I'm rather a blueberry snob myself, but I grew up picking them from my grandparents' patch in northern Florida each summer. I will not buy them fresh from the store -- how dare they charge $4 for a teeny box of flavorless things.

The berries I picked, though are, in a good year, always plump and juicy, very different from Maine blueberries. To be considered "wild," do the plants have to have grown without any help from man?

[funnybone]

Originally posted by marshalynne:
Check out this site for all you blueberry lovers: www.blueberrystore.com (http://www.blueberrystore.com)

I tried the site and it is under construction. Oh well . . .

[marshalynne]

Check out this site for all you blueberry lovers: www.blueberrystore.com (http://www.blueberrystore.com)

[kwormann]

I agree with Em...I find it outrageous the price they want to charge for blueberies and raspberries!

[Mamasue]

I am a wild blueberry lover too! I make it a point to find the frozen little jewels when I am out shopping at different stores/supermarkets. I do not like the cultivated kind especially for baking and also find that the wild berries taste way better. I have always said that I would love to buy a few bushes and never went searching. Maybe today I will do some searching and plant my own! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[crlykat]

I saw them at Trader Joe's just yesterday. They are near the frozen berry mix.