Each year, British Columbia growers produce an estimated 54 million kilograms of blueberries. And this year’s crop is responding to the remarkably un-Vancouver weather we’ve been having.
“Blueberries are at least two weeks ahead of schedule,” says Debbie Etsell, executive director of the B.C. Blueberry Council, which represents the province’s 800-plus blueberry growers. The fertile Fraser Valley is ground zero for blueberries, where the warm days and cool nights are perfect for what many call nature’s candy.
“You take a bite and they pop in your mouth,” says Etsell. And in the hands of some businesses, nature’s candy becomes even more decadent desserts.
A blue affair
On a scorching Sunday at the peak of the heat wave, I find A Bread Affair’s white tent at the Mount Pleasant Farmers Market. I get there just in time: owner Pat McCarthy has two blueberry-ginger scones left, and in the time it takes me to find my wallet, he sells one of them.
“Those blueberries were on the bush just a few days ago,” says McCarthy, handing me the scone in a paper bag labeled “Nooner,” which is one of the bakery’s loaves (according to its website, it’s a sandwich bread that’s “the ultimate lunchtime quickie!”).
The scone’s heavy on blueberries and light on ginger, with a touch of coarse sugar on top, and strikes a balance between crisp crust and moist crumb. Good scones are hard to find in this city, but A Bread Affair gives me hope.
- A Bread Affair: (1680 Johnston St.), and various farmers markets.
Uprising berries
Uprising Breads started in the ’70s as a co-op, and their wholesome loaves are available all over the city — including one called Grainful Bread, which makes me wonder if bread bakers have a particularly quirky sense of humour, or if I’ve just found two outliers.
For blueberry goodies, you’ll have to visit the café. The fresh blueberry tart is light and refreshing, while slices of blueberry slab pie (served as rectangles, rather than triangles) scream summer. There are big and small pies so you can take the party home, too.
- Uprising Breads: (1697 Venables St.)
Blueberries for YEW
Bruno Feldeisen, executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver, picks a blueberry off the tart that sits between us, and squeezes it.
“At the beginning of the season it’s still a bit starchy. It’s not as juicy as it wants to be, and the seeds are a bit bigger,” he says, showing me the grains on his index finger.
Feldeisen’s desserts are deceptively simple. The blueberry-basil sorbet arrives nonchalantly, in a tall mason jar, adorned with halved blueberries and a tangle of baker’s twine.
But as anyone who has tried to make blueberry sorbet and ended up with a grey muddle knows, it takes thought and technique to achieve the full-boded, luridly purple sorbet that sits in the jar.
Blueberry cobbler also arrives in a mason jar, with a cream cheese ice cream that should be made available by the tub.
And the fresh blueberry tart is summer on a plate — notably, it comes without the glaze it wears in most bakeries because it doesn’t need to look pretty for hours. It’s meant to be assembled, served and eaten fresh.
- YEW seafood + bar inthe Four Seasons Hotel: (791 W Georgia St.)
One final note on B.C. blueberries: while the warm weather means a bumper crop of fruit now, it also means a shorter season. So stock up while you can, because fresh berries — and these desserts — won’t be here forever.
