It turns out that man's favorite canine companion likes Maine's wild blueberries quite as much as he does. With the wild blueberry harvest in Washington County in full swing with growers reporting average yields, dogs who are lucky enough to receive Barkwheats organic dog biscuits loaded with Maine wild blueberries and other delectable treats such as pumpkin and sage have given one more marketing option to small blueberry growers in Washington County.
     Moon Hill Farm in Whiting, owned by Timothy and Lydia Beal, supplies Barkwheats with its organic blueberries. Timothy Beal notes that the dog biscuit company based in Stockton Springs is growing. "It's quite possible he could get to the point where we could not supply all the berries that he needs." Supplying dogs with a daily biscuit treat made with healthful wild blueberries is just one example of how small and large wild blueberry growers are looking at marketing their berries in new ways, especially the juice and frozen berry markets.
     According to David Yarborough, blueberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, organic blueberry growers in Washington County are a "tiny percentage" of the harvest. He notes that the Downeast Rivers Land Trust is the largest organic blueberry grower in the county with about 30 acres, but most organic growers have much smaller harvest areas. Ellen Johnson of Lamb Cove Farm in Robbinston has five acres dedicated to organic blueberries. She rotates the acreage for production every year, producing berries on two and one‑half acre sections. Johnson sells most of her berries to retail customers at regional farmers markets. She also drives down to Portland once a week during blueberry season. Last year she visited the Portland market four times; this year she plans to visit six times. Her client base is building in both areas, with special orders coming in for individuals who want to freeze her berries for winter use.
     "For organic growers, value‑added and direct marketing is the way to go," says Yarborough of a new effort being spearheaded by Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Small growers have begun working together to find value‑added marketing opportunities through the Blueberry East Food Ventures, a Washington County blueberry initiative, to explore the creation of a food processing facility, with the focus of adding value to the blueberry harvest and enabling local growers to develop new markets.
     Melissa Lee, the regional steward for MCHT, says that other uses being explored include co‑packing other food producers' products or creating a shared‑use facility that would allow other food producers to utilize the space to manufacture their products. The group has received a $12,000 feasibility grant to study the market and facility set‑up, which they hope to have in eastern Washington County. Lee explains that a realistic time‑frame will be two to three years of planning before a facility would be built.
Timothy Beal, who is involved with the group, says, "The big one from my perspective is juice C it's an interesting way to go. That's being talked about." Johnson is also involved and finds the idea of a freezer interesting and is thinking especially of fruit leather.
     The Downeast Rivers Land Trust's 33 acres of blueberry barrens are not producing this year because of its burn cycle, but Executive Director Dwayne Shaw reports that in 2009 they harvested 61,000 pounds of which 58,000 pounds were organic. The 3,000 pound difference is because of a buffer barrier required between their organic berries and neighboring non‑organic producers. "We're the largest single organic field producer [in the county]," Shaw says. Because of the over 50,000-pound volume they produced, his organization was able to enter into a partnership with Merrill Blueberry Farms in Ellsworth that allows for the processing and freezing of certified organic berries. According to Shaw, Merrill had been waiting to invest in certified organic infrastructure, and the tractor‑trailer sized volume of the land trust's harvest fulfilled their minimum requirement to do so. "We contracted with them for rakers and sold full volume to them. This then allowed other smaller organic producers to use their organic freezer."
     Shaw notes that the land trust's decision to produce organically not only triggered a ripple effect for other organic producers, but "we're also driven by our mission C so we can act as a catalyst to encourage others to move towards organic because of our concern about pesticide drift, contamination of ground water and aquatic life."
     Bagged frozen berries for the grocery store frozen aisle is also an area of interest in the value‑added market, both for small organic growers and the Wild Blueberry Association, which works with both small growers and the state's large processors. Sue Till of Swardlick Marketing, a firm that has worked with the Wild Blueberry Association for 15 years, says, "The wild blueberry is so distinct. It's a very unique, special and very natural product." The frozen fruit market, she explains, "has not always been a premium product." But, she says, frozen wild blueberries are a superior product with high quality being ensured because the berries are frozen within 24 hours of harvest using an instant quick frozen (IQF) process.
     Wild Blueberry Commission Director of Programs Patricia Kontur says of future marketing efforts, "The push is going to be on frozen berries that can be used in smoothies, pancakes, for when you make whole grain muffins." She adds, "When we have marketing meetings, we talk about the habits of women in my age group who make choices about what the family eats. I find that I use far more frozen fruit than I used to. It's more available, and it's part of a healthy lifestyle."
     Wild Maine blueberries are also an international export, with Japan being the largest market. "It shifts around from China, Japan, Mexico and Europe," Kontur says. Even with the economic downturn slowing exports, the international market is promising. "You don't have to utilize the whole market when you're talking about 1.3 billion people in China."

Harvest conditions
     Moon Hill Farm has four and one‑half acres of certified organic fields in Whiting, and the Beals have just taken on an additional six acres in Cooper. The new field is organic and is in the process of being certified. "We seem to be fine," Beal says of his field harvest. "We're seeing a standard crop." Moon Hill Farm sells "fresh pack" directly to individuals and about half of the new field will go to conventional sale to processors.
     Johnson says that Lamb Cove Farm's blueberries began about two weeks early. "The berries are looking good. We've been harvesting for two weeks, and the sweetness in the berries is perfect."
     Kontur says that despite the expectation of an early season because of the warm weather, the harvest was not quite as early as growers thought it might be. "In Washington County the barrens are pretty much right on" the regular seasonal schedule. She says of the harvest, "What I understand is that it is very much the same result [as last year]. Pollination and weather were good in some spots and not in others. Some yields are down, and other fields were unaffected and yields are average."
     An unusually warm spring combined with a late frost was a factor in the statewide harvest. Kontur notes that the mid‑coast harvest is "about done and that's early for them."
     Yarborough says, "The season has been quite dry. This stresses the plants as well." While there were outbreaks of the fungal mummyberry disease and isolated incidents of fruit fly infestations, overall Yarborough says that treatments have been effective in maintaining crop health.
     In 2009 Maine's wild blueberry harvest was 88.1 million pounds, the third highest yield since the 110.9 million pounds recorded in 2000. The second highest yield was 89.9 million pounds in 2008. However, the value of production dropped significantly from 2008 to 2009, with last year's value recorded at $30.6 million as opposed to 2008's $53.6 million. Yarborough expects the statewide yield for 2010 to be somewhere between 60 and 70 million pounds.