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Contents: 1. Intro
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1. Intro Every year in mid July I head to a Highbush Blueberry patch in northern Pennsylvania. It comprises about 50 to 75 acres in the middle of nowhere. Very quiet. Very nice. Very secluded. Just a little creek gurgling and an occasional turkey cackling. How do I do it you ask?
2. Equipment You'll need a large sturdy umbrella. A golf umbrella works great. The bigger the better. One 5 gallon bucket and lid. Afro-pick ( optional ). Use this if you want to be more selective and pick approximately 5 gallons in 2 1/2 hours.
3. Procedure As you walk through the bushes take special note of those that are really loaded up with ripe blueberries. We want those bushes that have a high percentage of ripeness and/or bunches which have mostly ripe berries in the bunch.
Open your umbrella and turn it upside down near the bush or group of bushes.
Gather several of the branches together and bend over the umbrella. The more branches gathered together the faster you will reap.
Shake the branches. Move them back and forth and shake again. Rearrange the bundle of branches and shake again. In a minute or two of this activity you will be surprised how many blueberries will be in the umbrella. | ||||||||
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Here is slightly more than a quart of blueberries from three separate groups of bundled branches, about 3 or 4 minutes of shaking. |
All you need to do now is reach in and remove the branches, leaves and other detritus you do not want and then tip the umbrella so as to pour all the blueberries into your 5 gallon bucket.
Then move on to the next bush( es ) that has/have what you are looking for and do it again. If you work quickly you can fill a 5 gallon bucket in an hour. If you take your time you can fill a 5 gallon bucket in two hours.
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This 5 gallon bucket was completed in slightly less than 1 hour. The berries were mostly all ripe and ready to be 'shaken'. |
Even if you do not want to worry about how many blueberries you pick and just want to pick like normal the upside-down umbrella placed under where you are picking will help by catching any that fall as you pick.
Or you can just pick and let them fall into the umbrella.
The Afro-Pic - A/K/A - Angel Food cake Cutter is also an option.
Use it like a handrake after the branches are bent over. If you do not want to use the 'shake them off' method the Afro-Pic works great. Just rake across the bush in areas where there are blueberries you want and knock them off into the upside-down umbrella. You won't get 5 gallons in an hour but you will sure get more that way than the regular way and those you knock off will have less litter to clean up later.
When you get home ( unless you know where there is a fresh water source nearby ) get another five gallon bucket, add cold water until half full then dump half of the blueberries from your stash into the bucket with the water. Then add water to the bucket which is now only half full with blueberries until the water almost runs over the rim of the bucket. You want both buckets with water right up to the rim.
With your hands reach into the water and swish around and stir up the blueberries. There will be a lot of floating debris to get rid of. Do both half buckets and get rid of the floatsam. Then comes the part where you clean out the junk you don't want such as unripe berries, bugs, clumps of matter that are in the water, etc.
As you swish them about you can then remove handfuls of cleaned blueberries and add them to a strainer.
How To Pick 5 Gallons Of Highbush Blueberries In One Hour
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