on these sandy glacial outwash plains for 10,000 +/ - years . Wild blueberries cannot be planted commercially , they must be tended in their natural environment . With over 6.5 million naturally evolved varieties , wild blueberry fields can contain 1,500 genetically distinct plants . From a biodiversity perspective , wild blueberries are unique in the world and are a strong influence on ecosystems in Downeast Maine .
Indigenous people cultivated the wild blueberry as an important food source through biennial burning , a practice which continues today . They ate fresh wild blueberries late in the summer , and dried and crushed them into cakes to provide critical winter sustenance . Dried blueberries were used as a seasoning for soups and stews , and to cure meat . Wild blueberry tea was prized for its healing powers . The juice was used to dye splint baskets and served as a cough remedy .
When the settlers arrived , the Native Americans showed them how to care for the wild blueberry barrens and taught them the many uses for the wild blueberries .
Gathering blueberries on the barrens was a public privilege for more than a hundred years after the neighboring seacoast towns were first settled . Whole families came from far and near and even before the Civil War to pick blueberries for their own use and for sale .
Evidence suggests that the barrens were burned over many years before 1796 and were much smaller than they are today . Escaped forest fires and fires deliberately set to increase the blueberry area have been responsible for the addition of thousands of acres since that time .
Blueberry Rakers , Whitneyville - The August harvest once drew a large population of migrant workers to the region , including Micmac from Canada , Hispanics , and Latinos . Migrants sent money home to their families . Generations of local youth paid for school clothes and their first cars . A permanent population of Latino residents , wild blueberry farms with roadside stands , giant tractors crawling down the road , and seasonal workers are a modern-day continuation of the long-standing history of wild blueberry production .
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