DRESDEN — Joshua Dore helped his dad, Nathan Dore, 6, feed blueberries right into a winnower Saturday at Fields Fields Blueberries in Dresden, whereas his youthful brother Samuel, 3, stood on the different finish of the machine serving to to type their completed product, but in addition diverting a good quantity of the flavor-packed berries into his mouth, not the containers ready to be crammed.
Nathan Dore, left, talks to guests Saturday about how a winnowing machine is used to scrub and grade blueberries at Fields Fields Blueberry Farms in Dresden. His son Joshua Dore, 6, is seen beside him. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
As a part of Wild Blueberry Weekend in Maine, the Dores of Sluggish Rise Farm in Pittston had been readily available to show how fresh-picked wild blueberries are sorted, or winnowed, out from the leaves, sticks, bugs and no matter else will get picked up with them. Of their case, which means utilizing a winnower made by Zane Emerson of Maine Blueberry Gear Co. in Columbia Falls. Joshua Dore may help Nathan load the berries into the mechanized winnower by hand, as Samuel Dore assists Nathan’s brother Bryan pick something that makes it via the machine that’s not a top quality blueberry. Nathan and Bryan’s mother, Tymbre, hundreds the completed product into pint containers, minus, in fact, those Samuel munched on whereas he labored.
“It’s factor now we have a farm,” Nathan Dore joked about Samuel’s urge for food for the berries.
Ashley and Jesse Discipline, homeowners of Fields Fields, certainly one of 14 Maine blueberry farms open to the general public for Wild Blueberry Weekend, confirmed quite a few guests their unfold Saturday, together with their very own apiary the place they take care of bees that assist pollinate their crops, and their acres of blueberry fields. They harvested early this yr, in what Ashley described as emergency choosing, due to the drought situations.
Jesse Discipline grew up on the farm, which his mother and father purchased within the early Nineteen Seventies. His mother and father farmed there conventionally, as Jesse and Ashley did initially. However they transformed to natural round 2000, and have been licensed natural since. Blueberries develop wild in Maine’s glacial soils, and are solely grown in Maine and Canada, and produce a smaller, extra flavorful fruit than different, excessive bush, business forms of blueberries.
“They’re wild, they’re right here, we’re simply managing them,” Jesse Discipline mentioned of the wild berries whereas main a tour of the farm’s fields.
Jesse Discipline, left, and Ashley Discipline lead at tour of their blueberry discipline Saturday at Fields Fields Blueberry Farms in Dresden. The tour was a part of a Wild Blueberry Weekend occasion on the farm. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
That administration contains making certain there are bees obtainable to pollinate the blueberries.
Up till a few years in the past the couple rented bees, from touring apiarists, to pollinate their fruit, however now have a few half million bees in 9 colonies of their onsite apiary. Ashley Discipline mentioned that’s solely a few third of what they want. They hope to extend their variety of bees by splitting their current colonies within the spring when the inhabitants is up, and forming extra colonies.
Ashley Discipline, who walked barefoot whereas giving a tour of the farm, mentioned it’s not as wholesome for the setting or the bees to have the identical honey bees journey from farm to farm to pollinate fruits as a result of the bees don’t get the proteins they want and dwell shorter lives. That was a giant cause to begin retaining their very own bees, that are in a nook of certainly one of their fields.
“We determined to take it into our personal palms and begin our personal apiary,” she mentioned.
Additionally they hope the pure bee inhabitants will rebound, together with bumble bees which Ashley mentioned buzz on the similar frequency that makes pollen vibrate and fall off blueberry blossoms, which makes them far superior pollinators to honey bees.
Jesse Discipline demonstrated utilizing a mechanized harvesting machine, additionally created by Maine Blueberry’s Emerson,pushing it via certainly one of their fields, which had just a few berries left since they’d already been picked beforehand.
Individuals wait in line Saturday to get blueberry crisps or drinks throughout a Maine Wild Blueberry Weekend occasion at Fields Fields Blueberry Farms in Dresden. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
He mentioned they switched from the back-breaking hand raking to the machine about 10 years in the past.
Festivities at Fields Fields farm this weekend included dwell music each days, gross sales of blueberry crisp, juice, tea, and different merchandise, and quite a few Maine distributors promoting handmade items.
Emilee Harper of Dresden offered hats and different objects she embroidered herself, favoring flowers and different wildlife grown in Maine. The artist who mentioned she’s been embroidering for 4 or 5 years mentioned the hats with blueberries on them had been made particularly for the weekend occasion. She mentioned she’s been by, however by no means stopped, the Fields’ Blinn Hill Highway farm, which provides sweeping views of the Camden Hills and, on a transparent day, Mount Washington.
“That is good,” she mentioned from her sales space setup in a farm discipline on a sweltering Saturday. “I hope they’ve (Wild Blueberry Weekend) once more.”
A lot of the fruit crop at Fields Fields Blueberries is flash frozen, a way meant to assist protect their taste and vitamin, inside 24 hours of it being picked.
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