One of the things that make living in Burnett County so great is the bounty that we can harvest from the landscape. From ramps and mushrooms, wild greens, berries, nuts and wild rice, to fish, fowl, and mammals, if we are willing to put in the time to harvest, we can fill our pantries and freezers with wild foods and cut the cost of groceries by quite a bit.
Burnett County has been known for its wild blueberries since early European settlers came to the area. Trains from the Twin Cities would bring day-trippers up and drop them off in Grantsburg where they would venture into the barrens to pick berries and have a picnic lunch. It remained a popular thing to do when cars came along, a friend recently told me that she fondly remembers as a child when her father and mother packed her and her siblings up one morning from their home in Central Minnesota and drove to Burnett County to spend the day picking berries. Of course the native peoples that lived here before us depended on the berries and would move their summer camps to locations where the blueberries grow. They understood that blueberries would grow better in areas after a fire, so they would burn patches of berries after the harvest to encourage a strong harvest the following season.
Vaccinium angustifolium – Lowbush blueberry, is native to Wisconsin and thrives in the sandy acidic soils found in this area. It is in the Heath family Ericaceae, and is related to to wintergreen, cranberry, lingonberry, and azaleas, among others. Its flowers are urn-shaped and the leaves are somewhat evergreen. They are found near oaks in this region, and have been historically prolific here because wildfires would keep the landscape open, creating pine and oak barrens, allowing the blueberry plants to get more sunlight and produce more abundant and larger berries. Bears are well known for feasting on berries, but many other critters rely on them as well, including deer, chipmunks, and many species of birds.
Wild blueberries are quite small, taking a few hundred berries to fill a cup, unlike the highbush blueberry that is more commonly found in cultivation, which are often more than double in size. But nothing quite tastes like a wild blueberry. They are sweeter and more flavorful than the store-bought berry and definitely worth the work it takes to harvest a satisfactory amount.
I like to use the berries in pancakes, mainly because I don’t usually harvest enough to make a pie or a crisp. They are especially delicious in homemade sourdough pancakes. Here is a recipe for sourdough pancakes using blackcaps.
One day I hope to have enough time to harvest more blueberries. This year could be that year, if I can tear myself away from work long enough, and don’t go fishing instead. Then I will make a nice big blueberry pie.
The Wildwood Glen 