The Dorset blueberry

Appears in

Published 2006

About

I first came across the Dorset Blueberry Company through Tony Booth, our specialist greengrocer in Borough Market, where the DBC also have a stand. We are so used to buying imported blueberries, which are generally quite tasteless, that discovering a new UK source — and in the West Country — was a complete breath of fresh air and serious seasonal menu material.

The Dorset Blueberry Company is the largest producer of blueberries in the UK and this family business has a history dating back to 1949, when the present owner’s grandfather planted the very first blueberries in the UK, after responding to a post-war article in The Grower, offering readers 100 free blueberry plants from Lulu Island, British Columbia. They flourished on his free-draining, acidic Dorset soil and the decision was taken to plant commercially, so he ordered 1,000 plants, which arrived on the Queen Mary in 1959.