In Europe, the blueberry primarily grows in the woods. It loves semi-shaded locations and sour, permeable, humus soil. If you like to cultivate it in your own garden, you mostly have to prepare the soil for it. The upper humus layer should be loosened and mixes with a sour substrate like rhododendron soil. Wood chips of conifers or sawdust are also useable to make the soil more sour and loose.
Once the shrub has established itself, you benefit from the blueberry for a very long time as it gets 30 years old and often reproduces itself through root-forming, creeping offshoots. From mid-July, the little, blue, flat-round berries can be harvested. In the grocery store, by the way, nearly only the American huckleberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) are offered. These are, in contrast to the European blueberry, larger, easier to harvest and their pulp is light. Therefore, when eating them, you won’t get blue teeth or a blue tongue. However, blueberries are a lot more aromatic than their American relatives, so that the slightly more tedious harvest pays off in any case.
First and foremost, blueberries are known as food. They are suitable for fresh consumption, can be cooked, baked, preserved and fermented to wine. The berries contain anthocyanins. These are responsible for the intense blue colouring and are considered very healthy. The blueberry has, in fact, been an appreciated medicinal plant of the popular medicine since the Middle Ages and is said to be anti-inflammatory.
Blueberries are also suitable for colouring fabrics in blue.
