Blueberries and Antiques

August 6, 2011

High bush blueberries.

Once when I was like ten I was up in Maine with Phil we all went wild blueberry picking. Except they don't call it picking, they call it blueberry raking, which is an accurate description. Wild blueberries are tiny little berries that grow on tiny little bushes and the only way to pick them without losing your mind is to use a special rake that you run through the whole plant. After a couple hours of crouching and bending we ended up with containers full of equal parts twigs and berries. Needless to say, we didn't go raking for blueberries again any time soon.

In what I imagine was an attempt to remedy this obvious flaw of nature, some very clever person came up with the idea of high bush blueberries. Either that or my grandparents had some furniture re-upholstered and befriended the couple who have the business before realizing that they also have over 50 high-bush blueberry bushes. For those of you who are not familiar, high bush blueberries are a cultivated variety that solves both essential problems with the wild berries. First the plants, rather than growing on the ground, grow upright and are 4-5 feet tall. Second, the fruits, rather than being little edible blueberries, are nearly the size of grapes. In less than an hour myself, Amelia, Phil, my aunt, Sue, and my uncle, Yale, (along with help from Henry and Jayla) were able to fill more than 10 quarts full of delicious, juicy berries.

The whole crew picking some berries.

Besides blueberries, another Maine staple are its numerous antique shops. It seems like every town has at least a few, each stuffed full of an eclectic collection of china, furniture and just about everything else you could imagine a person would want. As a kid I used to think they were great, but as I get older, more and more of the items seem either grossly overpriced or absolutely worthless. This is especially true of a gigantic old chicken barn turned antique shop called, not surprisingly, The Chicken Barn. I used to find all sorts of goodies that I simply had to have, but besides their great book collection, this time around not much else caught my interest. It's still fun to go and look, but the things I like I can't afford and the things I can I don’t like. I think the problem is I don't really have a need. If I needed a piece of furniture, and antique shop would be a great place to look, but since I don't need anything, nothing looked that good.