Anyone know what's up with a blueberry shortage?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Anecdotally, blueberries aren’t a huge thing in Texas, but apparently they are grown commercially in East Texas in some volume.

It’s been awfully hard to tell where blueberries are grown- with the plants being native to N. America, and being pretty easy to grow, they appear to be commercially grown all over the country- states in the top 10 for blueberry production are Maine (wild) , Washington (cultivated), Texas, Georgia, California, Oregon, Michigan, and Florida.

So if there’s a shortage, I’d guess it’s a local one, or something non-weather related like lack of pickers, because they’re too geographically widespread for it to be something weather related or disease related.

22

Our Walmart and Sam’s Club have loads of blueberries. I rarely buy them because they’re usually mushy. Blech

23

Peak season, that would be true. But this is the extreme start of blueberry season in North America, and only the early cultivars in southern states (Texas and Florida) would be available. There are no blueberries currently available from Michigan or Oregon, those bushes are probably in bloom, and the Maine crop may not even have broken dormancy.

24

AFAIK there hasn’t been anything unusual in East Texas as far as the weather’s concerned. It wasn’t a particularly cold winter at all. Maybe a little dry, but not enough to show up on the drought maps in any way- not year-to-date, year-from-today, etc…

Is there anything in Florida that might account for it?

25

Useful in season. Which around here is mostly mid-July through August.

Of course, with the aid of a freezer that can be stretched to all year.

Good move. Strawberries don’t ripen further after harvest. Those green-tipped strawberries aren’t ripe, and they’ll never be ripe (though they will eventually rot.)

Ayup.

If people are being deported straight into prisons with no due process, I don’t think a work visa, even for those who can get them, will cause much of a sense of security.

26

I was just at a Fred Meyer. Four different brands of blueberries, plus organics. Prices not outrageous for this early in the season. Also, we bought a blueberry bush in the garden center.

27

Have you been paying attention to the all the weird and severe and weirdly severe weather we’ve had over the past year?

Why do you find it doubtful that it could have impacted US crops?

We may be facing a lot of crop shortfalls this year, with less ability to make up the difference with imports.

Buckle up, it’s going to be “interesting”.

That, too.

28

Blueberries mostly come from Chile and Peru right now – it is autumn there. Supply problems could be weather (who knows what the weather has been there? Not me) or something else. Farm labor shortages caused by trump, we mainly won’t see until it is growing season in the northern hemisphere.

I eat as seasonally as I can stand – that means locally-sourced produce – and blueberry season starts in July here. We’ll get strawberries in June. Right now we’re eating local greens and fiddleheads, last year’s root vegetables and apples. Tomatoes are a dream of summer. May is planting season, not harvesting season. Everyone is at work in their gardens right now.

29

I checked Tesco to see where their blueberries come from and found this:

Produce of Chile, Egypt, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Croatia, Italy, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, Uruguay, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Serbia

30

Not in Texas or Florida. That’s why I’m asking.

31

Oh? Excuse me. Did I imagine that Florida got snow this winter? Seems there was a bit of a snow storm in the SE US, including parts of Florida, in January. As just one example. Texas has had to deal with both drought and severe winter cold. Yes, agriculture has been impacted by weather in the US, even if it hasn’t grabbed the headlines.

32

Okay, thanks.

33

How do you prepare the fiddleheads?

Bought some blueberries at Kroger today; they’re from Georgia, 18oz for $3.49. They’re very nice looking, big and fully ripe. There were other blueberries, didn’t see where they were from, but there were quite a few that were still reddish, not fully blue.

34

steamed with butter.

35

I saw fiddleheads at the market today. $25 for a bunch. I didn’t even like fiddleheads very much i did pick up a bunch of ramps

36

I noticed the two BBs on offer today were product of USA and Mexico. I expected further South or the Equator.

I’ve stopped buying pears from Argentina. Very pretty but flavor duds and they seem to stay firm forever.

37

Lousy with blueberries here in Canada. I try to eat some every day.

38

I haven’t read the thread.

But this article seems to go a long way toward characterizing the current situation (I just clicked ‘already a subscriber’ and the article was available to me):

[I eat my body weight in organic blueberries (not literally) about every month. No supply issues thusfar]

39

I’ve been hitting Holland Bottom Farm not so far from Little Rock for my strawberries this year. I’ve purchased quite a bit so far for fear they might have trouble with labor, but so far I haven’t noticed a shortage of them. I expect in the near future our choice of fruits and vegetables will diminish. But then this administration is against diversity so I guess it’s a win for them.

40

While the top of that page has today’s date, the bottom says:

Publication date: Thu 14 Sep 2023

Which makes sense, because it was obviously written in the fall, when the US production is reaching its end. Right now, US production is just starting up.