Goodbye, August

[nightdog_barks]

And I'm not sorry to see you go. You were entirely unseasonably warm all the way through, except for those few days we had unseasonable rain.

Dreamed last night I was reading a newspaper (a real paper, with newsprint) and stopped to look at a quarter-page advertisement for ... Canadian blueberry trees. Trees, the size of mighty elms. With blueberries. They had four varieties -- the names vanished from my consciousness as soon as I awakened (as happens with dreams), but I think one of them may have been MacLeod. I don't know. I do know that last week I had a dream that involved a talking wolf. Brain is braining some strange stuff in the night.

Finished Ron Chernow's Grant and what can I say, it was amazing. Two enthusiastic thumbs up, but wow does it require an investment of a big chunk of time. Was it the perfect biography? No; I wished Chernow had spent a bit more time on the role of Grant's son Frederick in the extremely ugly West Point hazing of the first black cadet, and I wished there had been at least a short follow-up on the lives of Grant's wife and children (one of his granddaughters married a Russian prince!).

Anyway. Started reading Lesley Nneka Arimah's What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories last night. I was very surprised by the ending to the first story, "The Future Looks Good." I have liked all the stories so far, though.

Comments

[illuminating_dragon]

I bought twenty pounds of blueberries this year. I bet they were from those trees. ;)

[nightdog_barks]

Those trees were a bargain! I should've bought some. :D

[illuminating_dragon]

Are your climate and soil suitable for blueberries?

[nightdog_barks]

Sadly, not really. Supposedly there are some newer container-sized varieties that might do okay in my area, but I've not tried them. But the blueberries that do grow well in some parts of Texas are called rabbiteyes, which is such a great name. :D

[illuminating_dragon]

What do the rabbiteyes taste like? Are they tart?

[nightdog_barks]

Honestly, I don't think I've ever had any. The berries we get from the store are all from the north -- New Jersey, Michigan, Canada. I don't think the industry is big enough in the south for supplying/shipping to anywhere else.

I did Google a bit, and it seems that while advances have been made in the taste of southern blueberries, the consensus is that the northern varieties are still sweeter. *g*

[illuminating_dragon]

The frozen blueberries here are from eastern Canada or Chile and they're not at all like the fresh blueberries from the Fraser Valley which is our big blueberry hub. They're grown on the island but probably only for u-pick or maybe local markets. Where they're grown really does make a difference - or maybe I'm just a blueberry snob. :D

[nightdog_barks]

I forgot Chile! We get blueberries from Chile, too. And Mister Nightdog just came back from grocery shopping, and the half-pint of pretty blueberries he picked up is from Oregon (for $2.50).

Heh, we joke that we've become pineapple snobs. The pineapples here are all either from Mexico or Costa Rica, and I think the ones from Costa Rica have a much sweeter, less acid flavor.

[illuminating_dragon]

The Oregon blueberries show up in our stores before the Fraser Valley berries. Since they're expensive I just wait. I used to buy ten pound flats but these days I see only the two pound plastic punnets. I don't think the stores can be bothered with the flats since they take up a lot of space.

I'll up the ante and say that blueberry quality varies by farm.

[nightdog_barks]

OH I SEE HOW IT IS. YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE BLUEBERRY TERROIR SNOBS. :DDDD

For real, though, if it's true for grapes, why not for other fruits?

[illuminating_dragon]

They may be growing different cultivars. But I do think that soil and weather alter the flavour as well. My brother used to live in blueberry country and they picked their own. He agreed with me about the best farms.