An Ode to the Blueberry

It's blueberry season at Kiko's House, which means that the blueberries I stirred into my yogurt this morning came from nearby southern New Jersey, where the sandy soil is perfect for producing lush plants with delicious fruit.

Blueberries were once a summer-only treat, but are now available nearly year round, although at exhorbitant prices. And they're not nearly as tasty if grown in some faraway clime, treated with preservatives and then shipped thousands of miles, so I bite my lip and wait for Jersey blues. Mmmm.

Depending on your locale, blueberries are quite easy to grow, according to gardening expert Constance Casey, who ruminates on them in a Slate essay.

Then there's blueberry grunt, a concoction favored by colonial settlers that is made with blueberries, sugar and water and served with dumplings. It inspired this bit of doggerel from an Anonymoose:

Feeling low, feeling blue?
Don't know what you're gonna do?
Feeling dull, in a funk?
Well make yourself
Some blueberry grunt!

Lousy day, rotten luck,
Almost run down by a truck?
Feeling just a little punk?
Just make some hot blueberry grunt!

Grunt, grunt,
Gooey, sticky, yummy, grunt.
Mmm! Eww! Just the thing
when you're feeling blue.

Broken leg? Broken arm?
Did you loose your lucky charm?
Brother lock you in a trunk?
Have some more blueberry grunt!

Lose your job? Can't find work?
Someone treats you like a jerk?
Have to lead life like a monk?
Try some more blueberry grunt!

Grunt, grunt,
Gooey, sticky, yummy, grunt.
Mmm! Eww! Just the thing
when you're feeling blue!