Where to pick wild blueberries in Maine

Have you ever eaten wild Maine blueberries? If you have, you’re no doubt already smitten with these luscious little nuggets. If not, you’re in for a memorable treat. It’s widely known that blueberries deliver major nutritional benefits. But Maine’s wild low-bush blueberries contain far greater amounts of antioxidants and fiber than cultivated high-bush blueberries. They’re also much sweeter, even though they contain less sugar.

The official Maine state berry, wild blueberries have flourished here for thousands of years. You’ll learn even more about these tiny but mighty berries on a pick-your-own visit to the barrens where blueberries are harvested in late summer. In Robert McCloskey’s classic children’s book Blueberries for Sal, his pint-size heroine knows the best way to enjoy them: just picked. Come taste for yourself—it’s blueberry time in Maine, and the fields and festivals are beckoning.

You can channel Sal at the following U-pick wild blueberry farms—but unlike Sal, try not to eat all of your berries as soon as you pick them! The farms charge fees based on the amount of berries picked. Most places allow visitors to gather blueberries by hand or with a traditional rake, a handled, box-shaped scoop with tines on the leading edge. If you don’t have a rake, you can borrow one. No worries if you’re a newbie. Farmers are happy to demonstrate how to slowly comb the rake through the plants.

Once you’re done, you’ll see how to use a winnowing machine, an ingenious, conveyor-belted contraption that facilitates the removal of leaves and twigs. Wear sensible shoes and consider long pants and a hat. Apply sunscreen and insect repellent. Because the fields attract honeybees and other pollinators, be sure to pack an epinephrine autoinjector if you’re allergic to stings. If you’d rather leave the picking to someone else, you can buy pints, quarts, and flats of fresh blueberries at these farms and from roadside vendors.

Lou Sidell, who’s owned the Perseverance Wild Blueberry Farm with his wife, Nancy, since 1987, welcomes families, many of whom return annually to the site in Kingsbury Plantation. “We string the field and assign everyone a lane,” explains Sidell, who takes obvious pleasure in entertaining visitors with his stories. Showing visitors how to use old-fashioned tin rakes, he advises to “rake easy, starting at the top of the plant and working your way down.” His fields’ elevation creates ideal conditions for a wild blueberry variety called “sour tops,” which Sidell says have a delicious, slightly tangy flavor.

Ronica and Steve Smith show pickers at Smith Ridge Farm in Strong how to rake blueberries and invite guests to help with the winnowing process when the gathering is done. Make sure to visit the farm store for fresh vegetables, free-range eggs, and bouquets of lavender.

In Columbia Falls, it’s hard to miss the huge blueberry at Wild Blueberry Land set beside a broad swath of blueberry fields on the edge of Route 1. A blue-painted geodesic dome, this delightful curiosity was destined for Instagram long before there was Instagram. Inside, the family-owned store brims with all things blueberry including just-baked pies, scones, and pastries; jams, jellies, and ice cream; and a bonanza of blueberry-themed souvenirs.

Rosalie Alexander and her husband, Jim, have sold the bulk of the family’s commercial blueberry fields once owned by her grandfather to their son and daughter-in-law, but they’ve kept the best part for themselves. The Old Blueberry Farm at Alexander’s Wild Maine Blueberries in Greenfield Township comprises 2 acres set aside for U-pick. Visitors can help winnow their bounty on a modern machine and examine an old-fashioned hand-crank version. You’re also welcome to picnic in the yard, which offers views of Mount Katahdin. No need to bring dessert: In Alexander’s inviting shop, you’ll find her fresh-baked goods along with jam, relishes, and blueberry-patterned aprons and potholders.

Peggy and Chauncey Varney’s organic blueberry farm has been in the family for more than 150 years. Today, some of the fields at Varney Family Farm in Chesterville are set aside for U-pick. Peggy is happy to provide a few raking tips: “Tug gently,” she says. “If you go too fast, you’ll make blueberry mush.” Visitors can watch and help as berries are put through a small, vintage winnower. Fresh and frozen blueberries, plus farm honey, are sold in the farm shop.

Scheduled during the harvest, the inaugural Maine Wild Blueberry Weekend is a two-day celebration (August 7–8, 2021) of Maine’s wild blueberry industry and tradition. At more than a dozen farms—some not normally open to the public—visitors can chat with the farmers, learn some blueberry history, tour the fields, see how berries are gathered, try their hand at picking, and buy fresh and frozen fruit as well as baked goods and other products (bring a cooler). Many Maine restaurants will join this annual homage to the official state berry by offering blueberry-focused dishes, and craft breweries and wineries will pour libations made with the fruit.

Begun more than six decades ago, the annual Union Fair and Maine’s Wild Blueberry Festival (August 21–28, 2021) features a pie-eating contest, a bake-off, a blueberry pancake breakfast, and even a blueberry-spitting contest. On Wild Blueberry Festival Day (August 27, 2021), the Blueberry Queen is crowned and there are free mini blueberry pies for everyone. This ever-popular agricultural fair also features livestock exhibits, judging, and events (pig races!); live music; and a midway with food, games, and rides.

Check local calendars for details on church festivals, smaller, one- or two-day events throughout Maine that feature lots of homemade blueberry goodness.

As you pick and munch, take a moment to ponder the impressive backstory and benefits of Maine’s wild blueberries.

• Ten thousand years before Sal “kerplunked” the sweet fruit into her bucket (and her tummy), native blueberries sprang up after the glaciers receded in what is now Maine.
• The high, hardscrabble hills in Maine’s downeast region known as blueberry barrens are home to the country’s largest wild blueberry industry. Farmers manage the blueberries, but they don’t plant them. These indigenous plants grow where nature puts them and spread via an underground network of rhizomes. The berries are one of only a handful of naturally occurring crops commercially harvested in the U.S.
• Known as low-bush blueberries, Maine’s wild plants grow near the ground and yield tiny, flavor-packed fruit that’s quite different from the larger berries often found in grocery stores’ produce departments. Those come from much taller, orchard-cultivated plants called high-bush blueberries.
• Little Sal was a smart cookie to gobble up her wild blueberries. While all blueberries—wild and cultivated—have antioxidants that are said to combat cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and signs of aging while promoting brain and cardiovascular health, wild Maine blueberries are the real powerhouses of healthful eating. The goodness is in the dark-blue skin, according to the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine. Because the small, wild berries have a far greater ratio of skin to pulp than their larger, cultivated cousins, they boast double the antioxidant-laden pigments. In addition, Maine blueberries offer 72 percent more fiber, while their lower water content means more concentrated blueberry flavor. They taste sweeter, too, even with 32 percent less sugar than cultivated blueberries.
• While the Maine blueberry harvest in July, August, and September lasts only about six weeks, the fruit freezes beautifully and retains its nutritional value. Frozen Maine blueberries work perfectly in smoothies, pies, and many other dishes. Try topping a bowl of cereal or fruit with the frozen blueberries, let them thaw slightly, and then enjoy spoonfuls of tiny blueberry “popsicles.”
• Native Americans, who called the wild fruit star berries because of the five-pointed calyx (a vestige of the blossom) atop each one, taught European settlers not only about blueberries’ importance as food, but also how to use them in medicines and dyes. Legend holds that they believed the Great Spirit provided the berries to feed children during times of famine.

Mimi Bigelow Steadman writes about New England regularly for AAA’s publications.