Blueberry Salsa

By Hklbrries

Blueberry thrill

Fruit's popularity on the upswing, thanks to research that points to many health benefits

Candy Sagon
Washington Post
August 3, 2005

Pity the little blueberry, always dwarfed in fruit popularity (and profits) by summer giants peaches and strawberries.

That, of course, was before researchers took a closer look and pronounced the magic words: high in antioxidants.

Now what many growers call the "health halo" is helping the U.S. blueberry business enjoy a tremendous surge including what government agriculture analysts say may be a record crop this year.

Thanks to research that shows that blueberries can help protect against some forms of cancer and heart disease, as well as offset some of the effects of aging, consumers have been rushing to add the antioxidant-rich fruit to their daily diet. Blueberries may still trail the mighty strawberry in consumption and production, but sales of blueberries in all forms — fresh, frozen and dried — have exploded in popularity in the past three years.

"All the new research has been a fantastic boon," says Rod Cook, a spokesman for the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, a promotion and research group overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Highbush blueberries — the bulk of the market — are cultivated plants, as opposed to lowbush blueberries, which are wild.)

Stan Urmann, who runs Riley Creek Blueberry Farm with his family in Laclede, Idaho, says he expects this year's harvest to be the best they've had since the farm opened for picking 13 years ago. Workers there spent a lot more time educating people about the health benefits of blueberries in the early days. Now, most people who come to the farm to pick berries or buy them at area farmers' markets know about the power of antioxidants.

"We don't take any chances in our family. We eat a lot of them just to make sure," Urmann says. "Plus, they just taste really good, too."

The United States and Canada are the world's biggest blueberry producers, with the United States producing more than half of the world's supply. Maine and Michigan lead the country, followed by New Jersey, Oregon, Georgia, North Carolina and Washington state, according to the USDA.

In 2002, for example, Americans bought 105 million pounds of fresh blueberries. Last year, the total jumped to 166 million pounds, according to the Blueberry Council. To meet the growing demand, North American blueberry farmers are producing more. In 2002, 433 million pounds of the berries were produced for fresh and frozen use. Last year, even with a loss of 40 million pounds of Maine blueberries to bad weather, production still hit 457 million pounds, says Cook.

This year, farmers are expecting another big crop — possibly as high as 490 million pounds, according to some industry experts.

"It's going to be tremendous. That's what the growers are telling me," says Stanford Steppa, president of the Maryland-based Magruder's supermarket chain. "The Carolina blues were wiped out by rain, but we should have a boatload from New Jersey for the Fourth of July."

Urmann says the warm, wet spring in the Inland Northwest and hot summer sun later in the season created the perfect growing conditions for blueberries at his North Idaho farm. "We have a really great crop."

Riley Creek Blueberry Farm offers blueberry picking during daylight hours. Picked berries are sold at the farm, as well as, the Sandpoint and Kootenai County farmers markets and at Super 1 foods in Coeur d'Alene, Sandpoint, Post Falls and Rathdrum, Idaho.

For the blueberry industry, the increased demand has been accompanied by an across-the-board shift in how the fruit is consumed. Traditionally, most of the berries went to the bakery and dairy industries for products such as muffins and flavored yogurt. Fresh and frozen blueberries held a distant second place, and dried blueberries didn't even exist until a few years ago.

"But there's been a huge percentage growth in direct consumer consumption. Frozen blueberries have gone more and more away from the bakery business to direct consumer sales. There's been a huge growth in dried blueberries as well," says Cook, himself a blueberry grower.

At SkylarHaley, a Pleasanton, Calif., dried-fruit and beverage company, general manager Peter Vermeulen says he has seen sales of the company's Stoneridge Orchards brand of dried blueberries skyrocket in the past three years, rising to more than 2 million this year from less than 200,000 pounds in 2002. Demand is especially strong at wholesale clubs such as Costco, where the berries are sold in bags that proclaim: "good source of antioxidants."

"We were surprised," he says. We didn't expect (sales) to be this strong."

With an ample supply of blueberries for consumers, cookbook author Jennifer Trainer Thompson, who grew up picking blueberries in Maine, says people should experiment with the fruit beyond the usual breakfast and dessert recipes.

Her new book, "Very Blueberry" (Celestial Arts, $5.95), offers several nontraditional recipes including an easy salad of arugula, prosciutto and blueberries with a citrus vinaigrette, and a blueberry salsa to be served with grilled chicken or fish.

For cooking blueberries, such as for a pie filling, she recommends trying frozen wild berries "because they hold their shape so much better."

She even suggests giving blueberries as a wedding present: "A woman I know says she always gives a pair of blueberry bushes to the couple getting married because you need a pair for them to cross-pollinate and produce berries."

Ingredients

• 1 cup blueberries, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, stem removed, seeded and diced
• 1 jalapeno or serrano chili pepper, seeded and minced
• 2 tbsp minced cilantro
• 2 green onions, white and light-green parts only, finely chopped
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• Pinch sugar

Details

Servings 1

Preparation

Step 1

In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. May keep up to 3 days.