Blueberry Barrens

Warm.  Prior to today's dousing of rain just a quarter inch of rain has fell in the last couple of weeks.  I've been watering the garden every morning.  A thin scent of smoke periodically drifts through the breeze from fires in Ontario.  Black-eyed Susans bloom along the driveway.

Beyond the Gunflint Fault, after the North Shore Volcanics has given way to the Duluth Complex, the diabase sills and Rove Slates, is a wild "interior" country.  It's a place were white polished and striated rock meets clear cold glacial water.  Apart from portages and a couple of rough hiking trails it's a place where the bush is too thick to traverse large distances by foot.  Traveling by water is the only means for wilderness travelers to make serious mileage.   Large, rolling rocky hills invite sweeping views.  Pure slabs of rock remind you of Utah and the Colorado Plateau.

A huge wildfire swept through the area a fews years ago.  Now this country can also be accuretly described as the "blueberry barrens".  All competition has been burned and blueberries now dominate the shrub layer of a forest.  At times you feel like you are walking on a carpet of berries.  The fruit is delicous and healthy.  In fact, some studies have found that phytochemicals in blueberries help reduce inflammation, lower chlolestoral and possibly reduce symptons of heart disease.   We would harvest them no matter what they may do for our health.  In the end we freeze most of our crop and for use in scones, pancakes, smoothies and sundaes.

This weekend we made our annual pilgramige to the Ham Lake Fire burn in the Seagull Lake area to pick blueberries.  Blueberries are hardy perrenials found around the world.  In fact, among berries, its consumption is second only to strawberries.

 Lowbush or "wild" blueberries are native to North America.  The plants cling to the granites of Canadian Shield along the upper Gunflint Trail.

Penelope relaxing, Amy harvesting, and Luna roaming the Ham Lake Fire area

Taking in the rugged terrain

The Harvest

One of the reasons I'm so drawn to this country is the geology.  Here large euhedral phenocrysts of potassium feldspar catch the afternoon light and my eye during the hike back to the truck.

Ending the day relaxing after a refreshing swim in Seagull Lake