Blueberries were plentiful in very early July last year in Q. By August all were gone. Some years they are most plentiful later in July.
An untimely ten day drought in SE wisconsin this year all but wiped out the morel mushroom harvest.
As for berries this year in the Q and BWCA, I think there is still time for enough rain to fall to negate effects of the drought. However, the chances of a normal crop of berries in the parks at this point in time looks grim.

amelanchier (june berry/ service berry, et al.) trees should produce similar berries to most years as they are less susceptible to drought than most vaccinium (blueberries) shrubs. rubus (raspberries) also tolerate dry conditions pretty well too but are present in much fewer numbers than the others. root depth and type of root systems (fibrous vs sporadic) help make them adaptive of drought conditions in unique ways.

go for the june berries in late july if the birds havent gotten to them first, they are delicious.

thebutcher

I am not a berry expert so my picking and eating has been of stricty blueberries and rasberries. As they are the only 2 I am sure of. Does anyone know of a good website that shows pictures, dates availabe, things to watch out for of other tasty treats mentioned before. I would love to try some new berries but don't want to screw up and end up dead or sick.

I usually get my information from the handful of edible plant books that I own (including a tattered one that goes on group trips), but some information is available on the old faithful rook.org site if you are willing to browse a little. Here are entries on the berries I mentioned earlier:

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-aj

What is the earliest you'll find blueberries, and where do you look for them?

Doesn't sound like I'll get to enjoy them. I'll be in the north central part of the Q from June 19 to the 27th.

Quote:


I know this is a little late, but in regards to "when to look."  For me it's always been Red, White, and Blueberry.  The Fourth of July weekend I scout to my favorite patches and check on the condition.

This year, because of the lack of snow (cold temps with no snow can kill the plants) and low rain fall I was expecting the worst (last year was terrible for berry picking).

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of good, plump berries.  Over two weekends my wife and I picked about 6 gallons of wild blueberries.

Where to look?  Rocky hills with Jack Pine...

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Blueberry pancakes.... yum.

-Shane

(Thinking I must be missing a joke here but just in case I'm not...)

Highbush blueberries might be head-high, but you won't find highbush berries in canoe country.

Wild blueberry plants rarely grow taller than mid-calf.

Also:

Blueberries can come in earlier than the 4th, too.  Spydor is right that most years few will show up before then but this year the crop was early.  We had no trouble picking berries enough to put in a batch of pancakes and in a batch of oatmeal.  Had I seriously thought we'd find so many this early, I'd have brought some bannock mix or muffin mix.

we just came back on August 1st and the Blueberries were on their way out, a month ago they were everywhere.

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asmjock wrote on Aug 15^th, 2007 at 4:09am:


Here we go again

That must be O_S in the pink sweatshirt.  How does he keep his fingernails so clean?

PhantomJug wrote on Aug 16^th, 2007 at 12:08am:


Secret lake water + hand sanitizer.