Brad Dokken: Prime blueberry-picking time is at hand in the North Country

Jul. 21—I don't have any hard, scientific evidence to back this up, but based on my experience, it's a good year for berries.

Juneberries and blueberries, especially, and to a lesser extent, wild raspberries.

I first stumbled on this "berry bonanza" one afternoon last month while walking around a patch of woods in northwest Minnesota.

Juneberries were just beginning to ripen, and they were everywhere.

Raspberries were quite abundant, too.

Three of us returned to the same patch of woods on the Fourth of July and picked 3 gallons of Juneberries in just a couple of hours. We could have picked a lot more. Also known as "Saskatoons" by my Canadian friends — although I have no idea why — Juneberries are easy to pick because they grow on bushes, often in big bunches.

To my palate, at least, they're every bit as sweet and tasty as wild blueberries. And I'm not stiff and sore for days afterward from kneeling and crouching like I am almost every time I pick blueberries, which grow near the ground.

Last week, I heard rumblings that blueberries were in season, as well, so I hit a favorite unnamed patch of woods last Sunday morning, pail in hand, to see what I could find. In the area I picked, at least, there were still a lot of small berries, but a bit of exploring soon put me on a patch of larger blueberries that allowed me to fill my pail at the edge of a trail within easy walking distance of the car.

This, despite a downpour that sent me scurrying back to the car waiting for the rain to pass so I could resume picking. The grass and the brush were wet after the rain, and I was soaked by the time I left the woods, but the pail of blueberries I picked was well worth the discomfort.

Compared with previous years, blueberries seem to be ripening earlier than usual, and if what I saw last Sunday was any indication, the next week or two should be prime picking time.

The tasty wild berries seem to grow best in openings adjacent to jackpine stands. Find jackpine stands with shorter vegetation, and chances are you'll find blueberries, as well.

Beltrami Island State Forest is traditionally a favorite destination for blueberry pickers, and the massive forest — more than 703,000 acres — offers plenty of places to pick.

Wondering how the blueberry crop was faring in Beltrami Forest, I contacted Charlie Tucker, manager of the adjacent Red Lake Wildlife Management Area at Norris Camp. The WMA south of Roosevelt, Minnesota, has an abundance of the sandy soil and jackpine stands that blueberries favor.

"My early reports to blueberry pickers were of average volume and spotty occurrence," Tucker said in an email. "Reports that folks have been giving me the last few days are much better than that, though. I think it's another case where anecdotal accounts based on a few observations can be misleading. ... Or I need to find some new blueberry spots."

In April 2015, a fire burned about 1,300 acres of red pine and 2,000 acres of jackpine in Beltrami Forest. The "Palsburg Fire,"

which was later found to be caused by a smoldering slash pile that remained after a DNR forestry operation

the previous fall, set the stage for a banner blueberry crop in the summer of 2016 that drew pickers by the carload.

"It was fun to see that many people out," Tucker told me during a

tour of the burn site

in October 2016. "I would come out here, and it would be like, you'd park here, and there'd be somebody there, somebody there, somebody there," he added, pointing across the landscape. "And it didn't matter because the blueberries were everywhere."

While this year's blueberry crop is unlikely to rival the 2016 bonanza, prime blueberry-picking time is at hand. Getting outside and exploring is half the fun. And who knows, you might be rewarded with a bucket of tasty wild blueberries.

This is the worst summer for ticks I've experienced in years. Especially disturbing is the increase in deer ticks, the nasty little buggers known to cause Lyme disease. I don't think I've had any deer ticks attached, but I've also been diligent about checking after time outdoors.

As added insurance, I recently purchased a bottle of spray-on permethrin fabric treatment, which can be applied to clothing and is effective against mosquitoes and ticks for six weeks or six washes.

I wore permethrin-treated clothing during my recent blueberry-picking excursion and didn't have a tick on me when I got home.

I'll be sticking with that regimen the rest of the summer.