It's time for another weekly Homestead Photography Contest. The theme this week is Blue Around The Homestead. When I think of blue on the homestead, what comes to mind is blueberry. I did my first update on my blueberries almost a month ago. You can read my post Tips for Growing Blueberries Successfully if you are interested in growing your own blueberries.
Rabbiteyes Blueberry
We planted four Rabbiteyes blueberry bushes when we first started gardening 6 years ago. We added two or three more blueberry bushes each year after that. We now have 16 blueberry bushes in our food forest. In previous years, we only put up bird netting for four of our oldest blueberry bushes. Some of the younger bushes were still establishing the roots and not yet producing. The bushes that were three to five years old were producing, but we used them to feed the birds who are my food forest natural pest managers. Got to feed those managers or they will find better paying job somewhere else.
This year we did something different. A lot more of our bushes are producing tons of blueberries, so we put up three different types of netting and cover a total of eight blueberry bushes. This year we also took our time harvesting them. Blueberry has a long harvest season and holds well on the bush, so as long as they are protected from hungry birds, there is a large window for harvest.
We let all the different varieties stay on the bushes until they are super ripe this year. Ripe enough that you don't actually have to pick, blueberries just fall down when they are barely touched. Wow, I have never tasted blueberries this sweet before.
We were stuffing our faces with blueberries while we harvest the super ripe berries. I ate them even if they fell to the ground. I just could not get enough of these candy like blueberries. Our fingers were blue & purple by the time we were done harvesting. I felt like a kid in a candy store...a natural candy store offering good for you candies :-)
A Blueberry is a Blueberry
I have read many orchard books talking about the different varieties of blueberries. They usually list the different characteristics of each variety. Colors ranging from light blue to powder blue to dark blue. Some varieties have full sweetness and some are sweet with a little acid. They also have different growing habits. Some are more vigorous and upright and some are spreading with open growth habit.
I have Brightwell, Climax, Austin, Tiftblue, Premier & Powderblue blueberry bushes in my food forest. To be honest, I have never been able to taste the difference in the flavor in past years. A Brightwell variety blueberry tastes the same as the Climax , Tiftblue, or Powderblue varieties. To me, a blueberry was a blueberry.
Tasting the Subtle Differences
However, this year I can really taste the subtle differences in flavor of each variety. Perhaps we harvested too early in previous years or maybe my taste buds have developed over the years to appreciate the different flavors of blueberries.
We just finished harvesting all of the blueberries except for one bush. This year we easily tripled our blueberry harvest from eight bushes. I did not weight the total harvest since we did not harvest everything at the same time. Wish I had done it, so I can show you how much money we saved by growing blueberries ourselves and how much blueberries you can get just from eight bushes.
Our globalized food system is in despair. Monocropping is destroying animal and soil life on earth. Through mass factory farming, crops are continuously treated with toxic chemicals that leach into our food, water, and soil. The continuation of such practices have, and will continue to lead to our food becoming less nutritional and more detrimental to our bodies. By learning to grow, even a minimal amount of food, you will be making a difference.
My mission on Steemit is to show everyone how easy it can be to grow your own organic, nutrient dense food. By growing your own food you will be less dependent on greedy corporations and take back power from big AG. You will save money and not contribute to the problems of our food supply. You too can gain food freedom by growing your own food.
If we want change, we must do it ourselves!
This is my entry to this week's Blue on the Homestead contest. Thank you for stopping by.
