Blueberries

Blueberries! There is something quite wonderful about these blue orbs that have gained so much popularity in recent years. It is the season for them now and the harvest is plentiful. We are very proud to carry the Organic Banner Berry stock from Co. Clare. This year they are particularly sweet and so easily available to us. We never fail to appreciate the work involved in bringing them to us safely. As I write we are also carrying the last of the imported blueberries and are making the transition yet again to displace the imported with the local variety. It is ironic that as we make the effort to hold on to this local food for our own consumption there was a time that much of this local produce was exported for a meagre income in war time. The tradition of berry picking (wild bilberries) in the hills of Munster has been documented in a terrific book called Picking Billberries, Fraochans and Whorts in Ireland: The Human Story, by Michael J Conry. In 1941 it is estimated that 60,000 days of labour were involved to export 7,888 hundredweight of these bilberries to the value of then £64,292.  I am not sure how much this would translate to but imagine it would make a very expensive fruit if the Irish labour was calculated in today’s terms. Enjoy the local handpicked treasures. We are very lucky to have them!

Anne Maher