Driscoll's Blueberries

We are in US this week.

Safeway has blueberries on sale for 97 cents for 6 ounces.

They are Driscoll's, no surprise.

Looked at the label wondering if they were from Jalisco.

Surprised to see it labelled, Product of Canada.

Didn't realize Driscoll's grew much that far north. Nice big fat ones, too.

This is relatively new with Driscoll's but Quebec and Ontario have always had outstanding blueberries. Lots of pine trees produce very acidic soil and blueberries love acidic soil.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/drought-high-costs-bring-us-berry-giants-canadas-maple-syrup-land-2022-08-29/

British Columbia's Lower Mainland has a massive blueberry industry as well.

I remember buying strawberries at Granville Island market in Vancouver. BIGGEST, sweetest strawberries EVER. Made Ontario's look like the miniature version.

And wild blueberries grew all over the mountains where I lived on Vancouver Island. Am heading up there later this week. Looking forward to fresh berries. Most of my friends have lots of raspberry bushes in their gardens (my favorite berry) and blackberries grow wild everywhere, although they come on a little later in the season.

Driscoll is a huge international company, this may the driscoll berries sold in supermarkets in France came from Israel

Driscoll blueberries in Missouri grocery $4.50/pint.. double clamshell of Dris Strawberries ~ $5.50! But the peaches & homegrown beefsteak tomatoes are the real deal right now. Farmer markets coming on strong.. Illinois corn-on-the-cob tomorrow. Foodie heaven.

I bought a box of Driscoll blueberries (actually bluets) at SuperLake a couple of weeks ago. I checked the box and it says 'Product of Mexico' so they grow the pretend blueberries on the south side of the Lake. I'm not sure I've ever had real blueberries since they didn't grow in Colorado and I only remember getting the bluets.

Never heard the word, bluets. When I googled most hits said it is simply the Quebecois word for blueberries.

Why do you call them "pretend blueberries?"

I have never heard of a separate berry called a "bluet". As far as I 'm aware, that's just the Quebecois word for blueberry.

Just because blueberries may differ in size doesn't mean they aren't all the same fruit or "pretend blueberries". Big fat blueberries are just ones that are cultivated commercially and fed so they grow bigger. Wild blueberries are quite small by comparison, and usually bushes grown in a home garden are smaller than commercial ones.

Climate and altitude can also affect fruit size.

When I went on line, very briefly, I got the impression that a bluet was the name of a plant known for its flowers, not the name of a fruit-plant.

But no big deal either way :)

I read years ago that in Colorado they sold a similar smaller berry as blueberries. And they put a disclaimer on the package in tiny letters. I thought it was something like bluette?? I can't find it on Google so maybe they don't do it anymore????

Huckleberries look very similar to blueberries, but are much smaller and not usually cultivated- they grow wild.
There's also something called a serviceberry that apparently look similar as well, but I've never had any.

I grew up in northeastern PA; every summer we'd wait for roadside stands and Farmers Markets selling Jersey Blues, a revered blueberry in the northeast US.