Wild blueberries and Sour Cherries

Sour Cherries!

A few years ago the university of Saskatchewan finally released their prairie hardy series of sour cherry fruit trees. You may have seen them at greenhouses this spring. The romance series of cherries have trees that bear the names Romeo, Juliette, Sweetheart and Carmine Jewel. Finally, a cherry tree that will survive the Manitoba winters! More things that we can grow on the Prairies!
One of my fabulous farmers did trials on all of the trees, found Carmine Jewel to be the most winter hardy, and planted an acreage of them. This year is his first season harvesting and we have just received the one and only delivery of Carmine Jewel Manitoba sour cherries that we will be getting this season.
Unlike other crops, the cherries are all ready at once, must be picked at one time. That means that it's now or never folks.

Very tart in flavour, these cherries are prefect for pitting and making pies out of, or canning, jamming or jelling for winter use. Don't have time to can them? Just wash them up, pop them in your freezer and use them this winter when making sauces and desserts.

The best way to support innovative crops in Manitoba is to buy the products that the farmer produces. Want universities to continue to develop Prairie hardy fruit trees? Buy a new fruit tree for your backyard, or buy the fruit that it bears when in season. Encouraging positive sales in this area will keep our ag science guys and gals working!

Wild blueberries
It has begun! We will be receiving our first shipment of Wild harvested blueberries later on today. The early timing of this first delivery tells me that we have a good blueberry season on our hands! What a joy.
These Wild blueberries are a wild cultivar grown in the Ontario bush and harvested there. On the east coast of Canada, farmers have planted this wild cultivar of blueberry to grow and harvest commercially. When they harvest these planted berries, the farmers use mechanical harvesting equipment that renders the berry useful only for frozen or production applications (ie, they get squished so aren't any good for fresh eating).

BUT! The blueberry season that is starting today are HAND PICKED blueberries grown deep in the forest. They are labour intensive to harvest, but are perfect for fresh eating as the squish factor is much lower than a mechanically harvested berry.
Buying these berries also benefits the native bands that camp out in the forest for weeks on end. These hard working berry pickers set up a summer camp deep in the forest, and spend their days picking berries for sale. Neither black fly, nor mosquito, nor heat nor cold stops them. It's thanks to them that we have these beautiful berries to sell.

Store your blueberries in the warmest part of your fridge, or the coolest part of your basement for up to 5 days. But of course, it is best to eat them as soon as you can to retain all of their delicious flavour.

Take Care
Erin