I was in Trader Joe's last week, and I was looking at the blueberries. I discovered, to my dismay, that the berries that they stocked were not from New Jersey but from Canada. Nothing against the Great White North--it's just that NJ is known for the quality of its blueberries, and I wondered aloud to no one in particular why in the world they brought berries in from so far away.

Well. I bought some. And, omigod, they were the most delicious things I've had in ages!!!!!!!!! Crunchy enough, sweet, big and beautiful! Not a mushy one in the bunch. They were as close to perfect as you could expect blueberries to be. The heck with Jersey berries! I'm a convert!

As soon as I finished them, I went back to buy more. Alas, they were gone, replaced by mushy berries from Michigan. (Again, I'm not dissing Michigan!) *sigh* I was worried that my wonderful berries were my Brigadoon, never to be seen again, when out of the blue (pun intended), I found them at A&P! So, for now, I've been enjoying my yummy berries again.

Has anyone else found that berries from a certain area are just better?

You will not believe this, but I have never eaten a blueberry in my life, just the dried up little things that look like little blue pieces of plastic in the blueberry waffles.

Until someone told me otherwise, I didn't even know people grew blueberries in my area. I've only seen the bushes in the seed catalogs.

Yahoo! Let's hear it for the Canadian blueberries. I'm curious - were the berries from Ontario or British Columbia? Or another province?

Being I live in Ontario and I try to buy local produce, I've been buying locally grown blueberries - literally from farmers down the highway from our neighbourhood and blueberries from Simcoe Ontario as well. They have been, as you said, lovely - very large, tasty, plump-delicious!

However, some years the berries are not as good.

What is sold in a grocery store, as you know, is not always representative of a region's produce. This is off topic but ... I buy broccoli every week from a local farmer at a nearby farmer's market. The broccoli is massive and tasty. The florets and stem are so sweet - my 5 year old said the broccoli tasted like candy! All summer we've been buying and eating local broccoli and it has been delicious. However, "Ontario" broccoli is also being sold in our grocery stores and I'm sure it drives our farmers nuts - the stuff is yellow and absolutely horrid tasting. The stores are doing a disservice to the farmers!

FYI - New Jersey blueberries are sold in all our grocery stores well - they are generally very well packed and quite tasty too. :0)

august is you-pick month in Alberta. The wild ones are spectacular in the north.

I've gotten some blueberry bargains this year and am happy because it helps make up for the disappointing strawberries. Last year's strawberries were spectacular.

My daughter bought a huge container of Canadian blueberries last week at TJ's and gave me half. They are wonderful right now! Since I'm on the west coast, they probably came from B.C. Earlier in the season we get good ones from Oregon. When we visit the in-laws in Michigan we get awesome ones there too.

I got some blueberries from Canada from my supermarket. I washed, dried and froze them for later. I did the same with raspberries. I always freeze bananas if they start to turn before I can eat them. Frozen fruit is great in a smoothie with Designer Whey, your favorite sweetener (I use agave syrup), a little yogurt or soymilk and ice. Like eating ice cream but good for you.

Just bought a big box of Canadian blueberries from Costco - they are delish! Don't recall which province they came from though.

oooh! There's hope yet! I was thinking that blueberries were done for the season. I'll have to scope out Sam's Club!

Poo. I just got back from Sam's Club, where the blueberries were mushy. *sigh*

I'm partial to New Jersey blueberries myself (straight from Hammonton, at the edge of the pine barrens) but that season is over, I believe. Moving north, Michigan blueberries are quite nice about now. And just yesterday I got wild Maine blueberries at Trader Joe's -- fabulous. THey are sweeter than the bigger berries and, of course, much, much smaller. I prefer the bigger, tarter NJ berries, but I'm willing to eat whatever is local and fresh for as long as I can.

Rebecca, you are missing one of life's finest treats, IMO, fresh blueberries.

I know, Cathleen! But at least we've had a lot of blackberries this year and I have at least 2 gallons in the freezer!

I attended a Blueberry Festival this weekend with my fiance and his son. Lots o' blueberry delights to be had there- blueberry milkshakes, muffins, ice cream, pancakes, cheesecake, coffee cake, etc, etc.. It was so darn hot that I wasn't even hungry, so I didn't sample any of the wares, though.

http://www.blueberryfestival.org/