Blueberry

Get to know it

Blueberries are small North American berries, sweet with a tart edge, dusted with a pale powdery bloom. They have been part of life in North America for 13,000 years, but the first crop from tamed bushes was sold only in 1916. In 2024 the world grew about 1.4 million tonnes.

What it is

A blueberry is 5 to 16 mm (3/16 to 5/8 in) across, with a little flared crown at the tip. It starts pale green, turns reddish-purple, then ripens an even blue under a powdery wax coat called the bloom. Ripe berries are sweet with a varying tartness, and they don't get any sweeter after picking.

The varieties taste different. Bluecrop has a classic sweet flavour; Elliott is large and mildly tart. Pink Popcorn bears cream to pink berries. Blueberries are cousins of the cranberry, the lingonberry and the huckleberry.

Where it comes from

Blueberries are native to North America. In eastern Maine, Native Americans burned away trees and shrubs to make the wild berries grow. The bush was tamed in the pine barrens of New Jersey. Elizabeth White began working with blueberries there in 1911, alongside the botanist Frederick Coville; local people found 100 promising wild bushes, and in 1916 they sold berries that were large and all looked and tasted the same.

Highbush blueberries reached Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands in the 1930s. In 2024 the world grew 1.4 million tonnes: the United States 29%, Peru 25% and Canada 12%. Within 50 miles of South Haven, Michigan, nearly 300 farmers grow about 18,500 acres (7,500 ha) of blueberries, and Maine harvests over 98% of the country's wild lowbush berries.

How it's eaten where it grows

In New England, berry pies with blueberries were written down as early as 1872, in the Appledore Cook Book, and in 2011 Maine made blueberry pie with wild Maine berries its official state dessert. In Québec's Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, where wild blueberries are a big crop, the people are nicknamed bleuets, "blueberries".

In South Haven, the small, semi-sweet Rubel berry goes into pies, muffins and pancakes, and the National Blueberry Festival has filled the town on the second weekend of August since 1963. Hammonton, New Jersey, calls itself the Blueberry Capital of the World. The berries are also fermented into blueberry wine, usually from wild lowbush berries.

How it's grown

Highbush blueberries grow on deciduous shrubs 6 to 12 feet (1.8 to 3.7 m) tall, at home in bogs and swamps. They need very acid soil, with a pH of 4.5 to 5.5. A young bush bears in its second or third season but takes six to eight years to reach full crop. More and bigger berries set when bees bring pollen from another variety.

Berries in one cluster ripen at different times, so pickers go over a bush at least once a week. Maine's wild lowbush blueberries aren't planted: they grow in big fields on mountaintops and glacial plains, and they survive -35 to -45 °F (-37 to -43 °C), while northern highbush flower buds are hurt below -20 °F (-29 °C).

When and where you'll find it

In the Northern Hemisphere blueberries are usually picked from May to August, and July is the peak of the North American harvest. Florida's crop usually comes in April and May; around South Haven, Michigan, varieties ripen from early July to mid-September; Maine's wild berries are harvested from late July to early September. Chile, Peru, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand grow them too.

Blueberries are sold fresh and frozen, and also as purée, juice or dried berries. About 95% of Québec's wild crop is frozen for export. In season, the berries star at South Haven's farm markets and pick-your-own farms.

Sources · 11

Get it near Detroit

What it tastes like

As soft as a kiwifruit, as mild as a grape≈

Not sweetlemonSweet

MildbananalemonSour

SoftpearappleCrisp

More about the taste

Varieties vary widely: Bluecrop is mild-sweet, Patriot tart, Superior sweet-tart, and Chippewa firm and sweet.

Patriot is tart, Northcountry sweet and mild, Polaris firm and crisp with intense flavor, and Superior sweet-tart. Weather and harvest timing can shift any given lot.

A tasting invitation

Compare skin resistance, seediness and acidity rather than simply judging berry size. If several varieties are available, keep them in separate bowls for the first taste. Use the names and grower as notes for a future purchase.

Choose, ripen, store, eat

1ChooseFully blue
Look for
Fully blue
Springy under gentle pressure
Ignore
Color alone
Choose fully blue berries that feel springy under gentle pressure. At a picking farm, taste a sample if you’re allowed to. In Florida, blueberry harvest usually runs April–May; in Wisconsin, July–August. Weather, farm and variety shift the dates.
2RipenDoesn’t ripen after picking
Doesn’t ripen after picking
Pick berries as they ripen rather than stripping the whole bush at once — one bush ripens over several weeks.
3StoreFridge, fresh berries
1. FridgeFresh berriesFirm container, not piled deep
2. FreezerWashed, dry berriesOne layer, then packed
Refrigerate in a firm container without piling the fruit deeply. Wash shortly before eating; for freezing, wash and dry first, freeze in one layer, then pack.
4EatWhole washed berries · not stems
Eat
Whole washed berries
Not eaten
Stems
Eat the whole washed berries, removing any attached stems.

More tips

A useful detail Blueberries on the same plant don’t all mature together, so a careful grower picks over a bush repeatedly rather than stripping every berry from a cluster at once.

Worth knowing

Blueberry flavor comes from acidity, aroma and texture as well as sugar.
If you enjoy tart berries, the least acidic variety may not be your favorite.
A blueberry's flavor depends on acidity as well as sweetness.

Detroit, Michigan

When it’s good here

Grown hereJul–Sep

Ships from other statesApr–Sep

Orderable$44.99Checked Oct 19Organic Blueberries · 4x 6oz Clamshells · Frog Hollow Farm$44.99

45 growing areas, 14 countries

Araucanía
British Columbia
Cáceres
California
Castellón
Chile +1
Coquimbo
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Herefordshire
Huelva
Jeju
La Libertad
Lambayeque
Masovia
New South Wales
Ontario
Queensland
South Africa
South Jeolla
Tasmania
Yunnan
You

Grows hereIn season nowOther monthsYou

8 of 27 areas · October

3221

Growing areas by country

United States13
Australia6
Chile6
Canada4
Spain3
Argentina2
United Kingdom2
South Korea2

and 9 more countriesand 6 more countries

Modern blueberry breeding traces to botanist Frederick Coville and collaborator Elizabeth White, who helped find promising wild plants; Coville’s early experiments in 1911 established that blueberries need acidic soil.
New Jersey and USDA breeding program, United States

413 varieties

See all 413 varieties

48 names in 9 languages

Việt quất bụi caoVietnamese
Cyanococcus cuthbertiiSpanish

Cook it

How to serve it first

Taste a small handful plain, then add another handful to warm oatmeal just before serving. That gives two textures from the same fruit: intact and springy beside slightly softened, without hiding either beneath a complicated recipe.

Recipes 3

8 blueberry festivals

Magoebaskloof Berry FestivalFebMagoebaskloof, Limpopo, South Africa · Organiser ↗Feb

North Carolina Blueberry FestivalJunBurgaw, North Carolina, United States · Organiser ↗Jun

Red, White & Blueberry FestivalJunHammonton, New Jersey, United States · Organiser ↗Jun

Texas Blueberry FestivalJunNacogdoches, Texas, United States · Organiser ↗Jun

Machias Wild Blueberry FestivalAugMachias, Maine, United States · Organiser ↗Aug

National Blueberry FestivalAugSouth Haven, Michigan, United States · Organiser ↗Aug

Festivals this month →

Strange but true

If you like Blueberry

Tastes alike

Close relatives

Nutrition, sources

Nutrition

Blueberries, raw · per 100 g

Energy57kcal · 240 kJ

Carbohydrate: 14 g
Fiber: 2.4 g
Sugars: 10 g
Protein: 0.7 g
Fat: 0.3 g
Vitamin C: 9.7 mg
Potassium: 77 mg

Sources

Blueberry · Fruitopia · checked Sep 23, 2026

What we don't know yet

The blue-color ripeness cue doesn’t apply to pink-fruited varieties.