2bnMaine

Maine is the largest producer of lowbush, or wild, blueberries. And Michigan is the largest producer of highbush. There is a kind of ‘culture war’ between the two varieties, not unlike preferences in caviar.

The wild, or lowbush blueberries, are the very tiny ones that Mainers insist have far superior flavor. While the high bush is the plumper, more common variety.

On September 15, the Lounders were winding down their wild blueberry stand in Ellsworth. Due to a very soggy summer, the blueberry season was much later than usual this year.

This was their last day of of picking through the berries, and packing them in baskets that are just the perfect color of aqua.

They even offer large ‘freezer packs’ which are great for just popping into the freezer.

When it comes to blueberries, we’ll take the ‘low’ road. It’s just too bad we’ll have to wait till next season to get some more.

Lounder Blueberries, Route One, just south of the town of Ellsworth — 207-667-2141.

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The quirky, and pretty, elver nets are back on the Union River that flows through Ellsworth. They’re quite puzzling if you don’t know what they are. Here’s last year’s post about fishing for elvers. Elvers are young eels.

And here are some really amazing American Eel facts:

1. The American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, is considered to have the broadest diversity of habitats of any fish in the world.
2. It has survived at least one ice age.
3. The eggs are laid, and they hatch, in the Saragasso Sea — two-million-square-miles of warm water in the North Atlantic between the West Indies and the Azores.
4. The tiny transparent larvae follow the ocean currents and salinity in the water for about a year to arrive at various destinations. Some remain in the ocean, some go far up fresh water streams and others remain in estuaries. This is called facultative catadromy – meaning taking place under some conditions but not under others, or optional.
5. In the next phase they’re called glass eels because they’re still transparent but have developed their adult shape.
6. Their sex is eventually determined by the density of the population — more eels = more males, less eels = more females.
7. They can cover their bodies with mucus — ’slippery as eels.’
8. They reach sexual maturity at various times between 3 and 40 years!
9. They can move equally well forward and backward.
10. Some females can get to 5 feet, most males reach 3 feet.
11. They can breath through their skin and their gills, so they can travel on land.
12. They are carnivores and eat fish, frogs, insects, clams, etc. and any dead animal matter.

Here is more info from The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The nets will remain in Ellsworth until the end of the month. So if you want to see them, you’d better hurry. You can also visit the wonderful Rooster Brother at the same time, and harvest some of their fantastic freshly roasted coffees.

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The acclaimed artists called Christo might be impressed with these interesting nets that magically appeared all along the Union River in Ellsworth, Maine. Here is their ‘Running Fence Project.’ They have a ‘River Project’ in progress as well.

But these nets are not fishing for acclaim, they are fishing for the very elusive elvers.

Hatched in the Sargasso Sea, elvers (young eels) amazingly find their way from the Atlantic Ocean, up the Union River to Ellsworth, Maine, and other fresh water rivers in North America. The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) has a catadromous life cycle, which means that they spawn in the ocean and migrate to fresh water to grow to adult size.

They are relatively rare and are one of the highest per pound catches in the world. Japan and Korea are lucrative markets. It’s a slippery business as this market attracts those who are interested in short term, high risk investments. And they are not day traders, they have to harvest their catch at odd hours only during the night. The season continues until May 31.

If you go to Ellsworth to check them out, stop in Rooster Brother to catch some good food. They appear to be important to the life cycle of elver fisherman and other hungry folks as well. Besides, they have refined the high art of roasting great coffee beans.

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