Happy Holidays — Wild Blueberries are a fruit for all seasons! More than any other time of year, Wild Blueberries show their excellence and versatility during the winter months: frozen berries adorn meals with ease, add color and flavor to festive desserts, and provide a spike of nutrition when it’s needed most. Winter is the best time to enjoy what Wild Blues have to offer!
Here's what’s inside:
- Frozen fruits could play a role in helping states meet nutritional challenges
- Growers wait out the winter with an eye on the harvest
- Wild Blueberries are featured in holiday recipes around the web
- Blueberry Vodka embodies the Spirit of Maine
- Cyclist Lance Armstrong unveils new magazine for healthy living
- Plus, recipes, news, nutritional facts and more!
As a result of a study measuring national objectives for healthy eating, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has urged states to intensify efforts toward making fruits and vegetables available in schools and retail environments. The 2009 State Indicator Report
issued in December shows that no U.S. state has reached national goals established for fruit and vegetable consumption. While national objectives require 75% of Americans to eat two or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables, the majority does not, and the deficit is evident in every state in the country.
Susan Davis
, MS, RD, Nutrition Advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America, said the current climate is a “perfect storm” against good nutrition. “Fruit and vegetable consumption has always been low,” she said. “And with the increase in fast food availability, eating away from home, and advertising for highly processed, low nutrient foods, it is the logical outcome.” The study indicates only 33% of Americans eat the recommended servings of fruit, and 27% eat the recommended amount of vegetables.
Consumers will find more frozen options on store shelves with the introduction of Nature’s Peak
™, a line of premium frozen fruit that launched in select markets this fall. The product features all-natural, unsweetened frozen fruit that is individually quick-frozen, a method that preserves the taste, color, aroma and nutritional power of fruit. This new face in the frozen fruit aisle advances the valuable message that frozen fruits are just as nutritious as fresh and have the added advantages of convenience and year-round availability.
While the busy season for Wild Blueberries in Maine and Canada recedes into the past, the promise of harvest time lingers in the minds of growers even during the coldest winters. Wild Blueberry plants are dormant during these cold months as they wait for spring warmth and sun, and while farmers may not be active in the fields, they remain occupied in other ways by the next harvest.
Most Wild Blueberries growers spend little time on the barrens during the winter unless they are engaged in expanding fields or posting farm land to ensure protection from snowmobiles. Farmers and their families often take up seasonal work such as tree harvesting, wreath making, or cutting wood, or spend time working in other businesses. They also take advantage of the off-season by attending meetings and seminars to maintain knowledge of farming techniques and regulations, or by traveling to farm shows in search of equipment and supplies or to purchase bees.
“If you build a house with substandard materials, it will be alright for a short while but soon the problems start. The carpenters, electricians, painters, plumbers, or roofers you call to repair or replace are like the doctors for the poorly nourished. You‘re fixing a problem that most likely could have been avoided or would have happened in 20 years.”
— Susan Davis, MS, RD, Nutrition Advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America, on the need for eating nutrient-rich foods.
The mystique of Wild Blueberries is celebrated at Cold River Vodka in Freeport, Maine every day of the year, but the holiday season is a prefect time to enjoy its uniquely flavored spirits. According to managing partner Bob Harkins, Cold River’s Simply Blue Cocktail is a winner for holiday parties. It flaunts the advantages of Wild Blues with Blueberry Vodka — the drink’s featured ingredient, and the sole divergent offering in this award-winning company’s premium vodka line.
Cold River Blueberry Vodka uses Wyman’s Wild Blueberries, which the company considers the perfect complement to the farm-fresh potatoes from Downeast Maine at the heart of its hand-crafted spirits. “A Wild Blueberry is so much more robust than a cultivated blueberry,” said Harkins. “The bottom line is that they both bring fantastic flavor, aroma, and an overall better quality level to our vodka.” Blueberry Vodka is made by steeping Wild Blueberries in alcohol, which is then filtered off the blueberries. A small amount of sugar allows the natural blueberry taste to take center stage, and the result is “true” 80 proof vodka with an aromatic blueberry bouquet and a subtle blueberry flavor.
Sauces, fruit cakes, hostess gifts, cookie parties...there are many excuses to cook with delicious, nutrient-rich Wild Blueberries during the holiday season. Holiday breakfast is a tradition in many homes — pancakes and waffles with a touch of blue make a delicious Christmas morning dish — and Hanukkah gets in full swing with Blueberry Challah and Rugelach.
Take a look
at how culinary enthusiasts around the web are integrating Wild Blueberries this season:
Hope & Health the Message behind Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Quarterly
Why are blueberries blue ~
Stretch Your Fruit & Vegetable Budget Tip #24 ~
Numbers Game ~
Spread the good news about
Wild Blueberries!
