Blueberries

"A blueberry is intensely fruity, as if a few blackcurrants, a blackberry and a strawberry were rolled into one and condensed."

Mark Diacono - River Cottage A-Z

This is another one of those things that just didn't exist for me as a child. If I did hear of them it was in reading American books like Little Women, or The Little House on the Big Prairie where the characters ate blueberry pie. Then there was Fats Domino who 'found his thrill on Blueberry Hill.' But I don't think I had any idea what a blueberry looked like. They were American and that was that.

But that has all changed, According to the Australian Blueberry Growers' Association - who, admittedly, are probably a bit biased, "blueberries are the fastest growing fresh produce category globally." And yet if you look more into the commercial industry you find that many blueberry growers in Australia anyway are going bust. Oversupply being the reason, which leads to the supermarkets paying prices that are too low for the farmers to make a profit. Or so many of them claim. Aussie farmers are just too good at their job. And yes, I do remember that they were quite cheap at the beginning of the year. Well relatively. It's a problem for the farmers because they are expensive to grow, due to the labour costs. You have to pick them by hand, and slowly at that.

I bought some today at a 'special' price of $3.00 for a 125g punnet. Fortunately blueberries sort of go a long way - you only need a few to make your breakfast bowl, or your fruit salad, your smoothie or your side salad something special. I actually needed the whole punnet, plus a few frozen ones because i was making a cake.

It's a fine line isn't it if you are a farmer? What to grow and when to get into the market, when to get out. If something becomes popular, then more people enter the market, competition intensifies and sooner or later you have oversupply. At least it doesn't take long to grow a blueberry bush, or replace with something else I guess.

Yes they are native to America and there is a rather nice legend about them.

"Next time you have a punnet of blueberries in your hand, check out the base of one of the fruit. You'll see a rather beautiful, round-lobed, five-pointed star. This was taken by Native Americans as a sign that the Great Spirit had bestowed 'blueberries' on his subjects to ease famine and disease." Mark Diacon - River Cottage A-Z

In Europe there is a very similar berry called a bilberry - which I also had not heard of. It's similar to the blueberry but smaller and darker. Its proponents say it is even healthier than blueberries with more anti-oxidants and something that is very good for eyes.

For yes, what really brought blueberries to the front of supermarket shelves is the fact that they are one of nature's superfoods - well they are purple/blue aren't they? Very high in anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatories besides the usual overload of vitamins.

As to the taste well Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a fan:

"I love the way they pop on the palate like little juice bombs, and I relish their lovely, sweet-but-not-sickly, tart-but-not-harsh flavour – as well, of course, as the knowledge that every single one of them is doing me good." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Nigel Slater is not as much a fan. He says that, "on its own the fruit can stand accused of a certain flatness of flavour", so he likes to add some sugar and lemon juice. And interestingly he seems to imply that you are best to buy them from the supermarket!

"they are one of the few things at which supermarkets excel. No one else seems to manage to sell them without a wrinkle or that telltale speck of white in their eye that so clearly lets you know their old age." Nigel Slater

I think I'm more with Nigel Slater than Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his River Cottage friend, but I do like them in a cake or a tart. And there are lots of recipes out there for this sort of thing, so i don't think I will bother with telling you about them - just google blueberries and you will be inundated. But there are a few more slightly unusual offerings:

Blueberry, juniper and whisky jam - from Yotam Ottolenghi. In fact in the same article he had another recipe that used whisky and also one that was for cheese fritters with a blueberry chutney. So lots of interest there.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says:

"Believe it or not, I also like them tossed into a dish of just-cooked baby broad beans mixed with snippets of crisp bacon – the cool, sweet fruitiness balances the edge of bitterness in the beans and the saltiness of the meat."

And the ever inventive Jamie Oliver has

Pan-seared venison with blueberries, shallots and red wine. I'm sure you could find a whole lot of similar recipes in which blueberries are paired with meat. And I've certainly seen them added to salads - fruit and veggie.

Blueberries are my subject today because I'm making that cake. We have friends coming for dinner tomorrow and no time to cook anything then as we are doing the Nillumbik winery crawl with them. The recipe is also from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and is a variation on Claudia Roden's orange cake, called St. Clement's Polenta Cake with Blueberries. I suppose it's called St. Clement's cake because of the oranges and lemons. And there are lots of variations of St. Clement's Cake out there too. Mine is supposed to look like this: