It might be a topic for conversation around the dinner table one night — is there really a Blueberry Hill? There is — one in Texas and one in Alaska — but the one that most relates to the song and is named after it is the Blueberry Hill Café in St. Louis, home to rock ‘n roll legend Chuck Berry.
How the Civil War Made the Wild Maine Blueberry Go National "The wild Maine blueberry was an underappreciated fruit for centuries until the Civil War put it on the national map. In fact, most berries grown in the United States got short shrift from cooks, canners and anyone outside of New England". “ 'We do not realize how rich our country is in berries,' noted Henry David Thoreau in his lost manuscript Wild Fruits, published more than a century after his death in 1862". "Indians understood the value of wild blueberries, and managed the fields by burning them periodically to get rid of weeds and bugs. They boiled blueberry roots for tea. They dried the berries and made them into a pudding called Sautauthig (pronounced sawí-taw-teeg)". "Historians believe the Pilgrims served Sautathig at the first Thanksgiving meal. In a letter, one Plimoth Plantation colonist described how to prepare Sauthauthig": "…this is to be boyled or stued with a gentle fire, till it be tender, of a fitt consistence, as of Rice so boyled, into which Milke, or butter be put either with sugar or without it, it is a food very pleasant". The Maine Blueberry Barren "Wild blueberries are unique to eastern Maine, with its rocky acidic soil and cold climate. Wild blueberry fields earned the name ‘barrens’ because they grow ‘nothing other than blueberries, sweet fern, scrub birch, and willows". "The wild blueberry is smaller and sweeter than its cousin, the high-bush blueberry. Mainers have no truck with high-bush blueberries, viewing them as ‘just wrong.’" "Blueberries appeared in American cookbooks far later than other fruit. The first published use of the word “blueberry pie” may have appeared in New England Farmer in November 1829, and only in passing. The article described a cranky New England innkeeper". "A Mrs. Bliss may have published the first recipe for blueberry pie in her Practical Cook Book in 1850. It included instructions for venting the pie to help prevent juice from running out – the bane of the blueberry pie maker. Nicolo Sacco requested blueberry pie for his last meal before his execution in 1927". "Historians disagree on whether the blueberry rake – a round dustpan with teeth – was invented by Downeaster Abijah Tabbut sometime in the 19th century. Today there is only one blueberry rake maker in Maine". "New Englanders ate wild blueberries and sold them commercially, but few knew them outside the region. Then came the Civil War. Sardine canneries lost their Southern markets, so they switched to selling canned blueberries to Union troops. The soldiers developed a taste for the sweet wild berry and took it home with them after the war".
Vanilla custards with roasted blueberries (Link) "I made little bowls of vanilla bean custard and topped them with briefly roasted blueberries. I know, I know, the blueberries weren’t requested but they’re really wonderful right now and their tartness, which is amplified slightly by a lemon juice finish, plays off the dense richness of the chilled custards underneath perfectly".
We had both red and blue (we called them black) raspberries in the field behind our house in Ohio. The blue ones were smaller, and had a different taste. Stronger, much better, imo. I would hunt for those first.