DRESDEN — Wild blueberry farmers across Maine are gearing up for the 5th Annual Wild Blueberry Weekend, set for Aug. 2 and 3.
After a slow start to the season, the berries recently popped and are ready for harvesting, said Ashley Field, co-owner of Fields Fields Wild Organic Blueberries in Dresden.
“The harvest is looking great,” she said Thursday as workers mined the field for the tiny fruit. “We just started yesterday. We were a little concerned about the lack of rain leading up to harvest then we got a little rain on Sunday and now it’s just blossoming and thriving.”
Not far away, several bee boxes buzzed with thousands of pollinators. A worker pushed a mechanical harvester, and others cleared birch tree brush out of the field to make picking easier.
The Field family has owned the farm since the 1970s, a tradition now carried on by Jesse Field — who grew up there — and his wife Ashley.
Part of what they enjoy is helping visitors to the farm understand where their food comes from, Ashley Field said.
“That’s one of the reasons why Wild Blueberry Weekend is so great because it allows people to come and meet the farmers and really dive in and get to know why wild blueberries are so special and why they grow here and why they taste so good,” she said.
Susana Hancock pushes the mechanical harvester on Thursday at Fields Fields Wild Organic Blueberries in Dresden. (Spectrum News/Susan Cover)
Last year, Maine farmers harvested more than 88 million pounds of wild blueberries and the state produces nearly 100% of all wild blueberries in the U.S., according to the governor’s office.
More than 10,000 people attended Wild Blueberry Weekend events across the state last year, with locations as varied as ice cream shops, breweries, wineries, restaurants and of course farms.
At the farm in Dresden, the Fields’ harvest about 10,000 pounds of blueberries a year. They have 35 acres total, but the berries grow on an every-other-year cycle, so they farm about half each year.
During blueberry weekend, Fields Fields will have a pancake breakfast, live music, more than 15 women-owned craft vendors, food trucks and many products featuring the star of the show — blueberries.
“Soap to pies to jams and then we have our Fields Fields products including our famous wild blueberry crisp,” Ashley Field said.
For a full list of Wild Blueberry Weekend events, go to wildblueberryweekend.com.
