For the Birds

[AlanLichty]

This year has been absurd for how many berries our blue berry bushes produced and they just keep coming. They first got started in early July and I was out picking every day until my wife announced that the freezer was full with 7 gallons in bags. I slowed my picking down to what we could eat on a daily basis and that has been at least several more gallons of berries since late July. This image is from yesterday and what you see is what is still left for the birds at this point since I have a half gallon in the refrigerator for snacking and to put in my cereal.

C&C always welcome.

 

[Trent Watts]

Lucky you. Luck birds. I still see some developing berries in the image. Blueberry Jam, Jelly??

 

[AlanLichty]

Lucky you. Luck birds. I still see some developing berries in the image. Blueberry Jam, Jelly??

Thanks Trent - I should invite the blue jay that was grabbing green berries in June back for the good stuff. We are still trying to figure out what we are going to do with the 7 gallons of berries we have already harvested. That's over double any year prior to this one.

 

[JimFox]

That's a lot Alan!

I am with Trent, make some blueberry jam!

 

[AlanLichty]

That's a lot Alan!

I am with Trent, make some blueberry jam!

Thanks Jim - I am still trying to decide what we are going to do with the 7 gallons already in our freezer. That's more than we have ever harvested before and doesn't count what is still out these.

 

[DES]

My wife has been staring at your photo of the blueberries for some time now. She buys some every week at the store and gets maybe one good package in every 10 she buys (they come from Peru, Mexico, Texas, and places unknown). None look as good as yours and I'm sure they don't taste as good.

 

[AlanLichty]

My wife has been staring at your photo of the blueberries for some time now. She buys some every week at the store and gets maybe one good package in every 10 she buys (they come from Peru, Mexico, Texas, and places unknown). None look as good as yours and I'm sure they don't taste as good.

Thanks Darrell - these are every bit as good as they look. I am having my house painted right now and invited the painters to eat as many as they could before what's left goes bad. They have been chowing down every time they walk past the row of bushes and as they were leaving today the head guy asked me if he could bring his wife and kid with him tomorrow morning to pick a whole bunch. I suggested they bring a fist full of bags as there is around a gallon or more ripe berries ready to eat.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Nice, Alan. Do you have huckleberries too? When I taught field geology classes in WA in August the huckleberries were ripe, so I had the whole class picking them (that would be 21 students). Then we went to a Dairy Queen and put them over the ice cream in a cup.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice, Alan. Do you have huckleberries too? When I taught field geology classes in WA in August the huckleberries were ripe, so I had the whole class picking them (that would be 21 students). Then we went to a Dairy Queen and put them over the ice cream in a cup.

Thanks Doug - we do have some evergreen huckleberries but not the kind you find in the meadows of the Cascades. The evergreen huckleberries are the same ones you find all over the Pacific coastline up here. There have very small berries that are edible but they are like BBs compared to the blueberries. We keep the bushes around for the birds to eat. The berries you find up in the mountains are larger and more flavorful.

 

[Peter Michal]

This year has been absurd for how many berries our blue berry bushes produced and they just keep coming. They first got started in early July and I was out picking every day until my wife announced that the freezer was full with 7 gallons in bags. I slowed my picking down to what we could eat on a daily basis and that has been at least several more gallons of berries since late July. This image is from yesterday and what you see is what is still left for the birds at this point since I have a half gallon in the refrigerator for snacking and to put in my cereal.

View attachment 75242

C&C always welcome.

Very nice detail!

 

[AlanLichty]

Very nice detail!

Thanks!

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Amazing that they are still growing. Put them in small brackets for a dollar each in your front yard given how many there are looks like the birds had enough as well.

 

[AlanLichty]

Amazing that they are still growing. Put them in small brackets for a dollar each in your front yard given how many there are looks like the birds had enough as well.

Thanks Jameel - this shot was from August and needless to say the berries are long gone as are all of the leaves now. I had my house painted in August and invited the painters to take/eat all they could. One of them brought his wife by one day to pick all she could as well. I was tired of picking them by then so left the rest for the birds and bugs. I did find a chorus frog up near a cluster of berries one day picking off the bugs that were showing up.