Gifting Goes Wild: Four Fab Finds for a Blue Christmas

A Maine Wild Blueberry Wreath celebrates the influences of Washington County’s wild blueberry harvesting industry. Courtesy of Maine Made Christmas.

Wild blueberries – sweet, delicious, and packed with powerful antioxidants – they are part of holiday-ready homes, not just in Maine and Canada but across the nation. If they aren’t part of your celebration, they should be. Blues do heavy lifting during the season as the perfect ingredient for the sweet, the savory, and everything in between. And, gifts that feature wild blueberries send a message that the recipient is as unique as what’s in the box.

Whether your love for wild blues cleaves toward the traditional – say, blueberry pancakes on Christmas morning – or the more enthusiastic (like the Maine Wild Blueberry Wreath pictured above from Maine Made Christmas), you can incorporate this beloved berry into your holidays. These four wild blue finds are a great start, whether you are gift shopping, entertaining, or in need of an exceptionally sweet treat.

Enjoy the season!

1. HoneyMaker Blueberry Mead 

HoneyMaker Mead is handcrafted in Maine and uses the natural ingredients of the state – notably, locally sourced honey – to create its complex flavor. To make HoneyMaker Blueberry Mead, organic wild blueberries infuse a blueberry essence and a rose-colored hue to the mead, and the result is an aperitif that serves as a distinctive alternative to rosé.

Wild Cocktail Tip: 

Lovely alone, cocktails are a creative way to enjoy mead. Try HoneyMaker Blueberry Mead in a Nor’Easter, a refreshing cocktail any time of year that combines Cold River Blueberry Vodka and Bar Harbor Blueberry Syrup – a true taste of the coast!

2. Pemberton’s Spicy Blueberry Steak Sauce & Marinade

This superbly spicy, savory version of steak sauce takes flavor to new heights when meat, chicken, or fish are involved. Its use of wild blues makes more traditional sauces seem old-fashioned. It was developed by a retired Maine police chief and perfected by Pemberton’s Gourmet in Gray. It recently received a seal of approval from Portland Press Herald’s food writer Meredith Goad. Spicy Blueberry Steak Sauce & Marinade imparts a subtle flavor to steak and chicken (even salmon) and works as a kicky marinade. Pick it up for the meat lover in your life at Pemberton’s Gourmet, where you’ll also find Blueberry Salsa and some mouth-watering ideas for giving your sauce a try.

3. Wild Maine Blueberry Tart

The art of the tart is not lost on wild blueberry lovers the world over.  If you’re looking for a sensational dessert for a holiday party, hostess gift, or a taste of home to arrive at a far-flung relative’s door, iGourmet.com comes through with their Wild Maine Blueberry Tart, a decadent dessert made with fresh Maine blueberries, lime curd and a touch of coconut. This taste-of-harvest-season treat arrives frozen anywhere you wish.

4. Chocolate! (with a Touch of Blue)

For some, it’s a stocking stuffer, for others it’s the main event – chocolate, that is, a gift giving staple for all seasons. Wild blueberries create a sweet fusion with chocolate that local chocolatiers find it impossible not to take advantage of.

Exhibit one: Len Libby’s Maine Wild Blueberry Clusters. Go wild and add Blueberry Caramel Popcorn from the Maine chocolatier for a unique take on the state’s favorite flavor. You can also opt for Bar Harbor Jam’s Milk Chocolate Covered Blueberries, a sweetly sensational example of how this company uses wild blues in their wares. Finally, get your sweet on with Wilbur’s Chocolate Covered Blueberries – these dried blueberries dipped generously in white chocolate are tinted for their true blue look.

Baking for the holiday season? Make sure to keep Wild Blueberries Recipes close at hand. You’ll be prepared for seasonal surprises with everything from appetizers to cocktails.

12 Wild Days of Blue: 5 Golden…Retrievers? Don’t Forget the Dog

Have you ever arrived at Aunt Florence’s door at Christmas only to realize you neglected to include a gift for her beloved rat terrier? Not this year. Dogs are human, too. Or, at least we like to think they are. And that means good nutrition is important for fighting disease and staying healthy for them just as it is for us.

A dog’s genetic makeup is like a wolf’s – historically, they got their food from the wild by eating berries, just like early man. Antioxidants and whole ingredients are important for preserving good health, and healthy treats show Aunt Florence that you care about her beloved fuzzball.

Day 5: Healthy Wild Blueberry Dog Treats 

For healthy organic treats for the dog this year, we start in Biddeford at the Growling Gourmet. They make handcrafted treats for dogs using organic ingredients, without sugar, salt, wheat, corn or preservatives. For purposes of the 12 Days of Blues, their crowning achievement is their Maine Blueberry Dog Treats, chosen for their high antioxidant content. Combining blues with rolled oats, molasses, and flax seed makes a satisfying treat. Fido may want to try Carrot Cinnamon or Sharp Cheddar treats as well.

We end at Barkwheats Bakehouse in Stockton Springs. Barkwheats is a B-Corp, a corporation whose mission is to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. They use buckwheat flour milled on a buckwheat-only mill, which means treats are guaranteed gluten free, and their ingredients include parsley, sea vegetables, pumpkin, blueberries, sage, chamomile, lavender & honey – all carefully chosen for their important nutritional properties. Our choice is Peace Berry, a flavor that uses wild blueberries to deliver powerful antioxidants to support your dog’s immune system.

Day 7 of 12 Wild Days of Blue – The Countdown Continues!

Books are favorite items for the holiday shopping list, and curling up with the right one is just another way to get a dose of blue this season. Day 7 of our countdown ushers in some of our favorites of the year, and adds a couple of literary wild cards for the person that has everything blue.

Day 7: Good Reads

First up, we revisit Meg Wolff’s A Life In Balance: Delicious, Plant-Based Recipes for Optimal Health (Down East Books 2010). Her latest book provides the map for starting a life of better health and nutrition based on a plant-based diet. Bright colors and a wealth of fruits and vegetable preparations will please the palate and make a major contribution to wellness and disease prevention.

Gail J. VanWart is a Maine writer who is currently the fourth generation to maintain her native wild blueberries farm in Maine. Life Raked In (Out Of The Blue, 2011) condenses such a life’s harvest into a selection of poems, recipes and thoughts on life inspired by this perspective from the fields, a unique take on the wild blueberry life.

You may know Maine writer and food aficionado Kathy Gunst from her blog or her recently published book of the same name, Notes from a Maine Kitchen from Down East Books. She takes on the seasonal bounties of Maine using the calendar as her guide. The book provides a wonderful opportunity to give the gift of regionally-inspired food made from locally-sourced ingredients.

For the person on your list who prides themselves on being just a little odd, Maine’s own humorist Tim Sample and writing partner Steve Bither reveal what’s wild and wacky about their state in this third edition of Maine Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, and Other Offbeat Stuff (Globe Pequot, 2011). One highlight includes the largest blueberry in the country, or as we fondly know it, Wild Blueberry Land in Columbia Falls, the blue geodesic dome  that is part bakery and part theme-park and wholly a piece of Maine wild blueberry culture.

If putting local foods on your plate is your mission, Lisa Turner will help with Eat Local, published by Down East Books. She has collected over one hundred recipes from Maine’s top chefs, farmers, home cooks, and some from her own kitchen, including her mother-in-law’s own Blueberry Buckle – a gift of true blue.

Finally, for the last word on the contribution of this little blue fruit to our everyday lives, comes Virginia Wright’s Wild Blueberry Book from Down East Books. It’s a charming and comprehensive primer of blueberry knowledge that provides an insider look from farmers, growers, scientists, and festival workers, as well as the region’s best recipes.

12 Wild Days of Blues – Day 10

The holiday season means putting good health and nutrition on hold until January. But when you have delicious confections like those from Cranberry Island Kitchen, having a treat or two isn’t naughty. It’s very nice!

Cranberry Island Kitchen, located on Danforth Street in Portland, offers homemade gourmet baked goods with real, wholesome ingredients, including homemade butter, local eggs, and organic vanilla and spices. And, they are all wonderfully inspired by the sea.

For gifting, a stylish blue tin filled with scallop or clam shell-shaped homemade whoopee pies is a pure delight. Personalize yours by choosing your own filling – choices range from champagne to rich chocolate. Even their enchanting lobster shortbread sport a fashionable wreath during the holidays! A most satisfying catch.

Gourmet Blueberry Whoopie Pies.
Photo courtesy of Cranberry Island Kitchen.

Day 10: Gourmet Blueberry Whoopie Pies

Such exquisite Maine-inspired confections brings us to Day 10: Cranberry Island Kitchen Gourmet Blueberry Whoopie Pies.Yes, those are fresh Maine blueberries baked into the scallop-shaped butter cake and filled with a classic whoopie pie filling. Give them by the dozen – they are destined to be a Maine classic.

12 Wild Days of Blues – Day 11

Maine’s wealth of balsam combined with deeply-rooted family wreath-making businesses make the state a national treasure during the season. It’s no wonder the “Wreaths Across America” program, which for the past 20 years has sponsored a nationwide effort to place fresh evergreen wreaths at the graves of fallen U.S. servicemen and women, was begun here in Harrington, Maine 20 years ago.

In December, northern Maine bustles with the business of wreaths. One well-known Maine wreath business, Whitney Wreaths, offers Spirit of Blue wreaths – not in homage to the berry, but to honor Maine servicemen, known as the men and women in blue.  A portion of the proceeds goes to Spirit of Blue.

The Wild Maine Blueberry Gift Pack wreath
from Down on the Farm showcases decorative wild
blueberries and comes with Wild  Maine Blueberry Truffles.

Day 11: Wild Maine Blueberry Wreath

It’s clear that when you buy a fresh evergreen wreath, you are celebrating Maine. So why not add a touch of the state’s famous fruit? No reason, says wreath businesses like Sprague Nursery  in Bangor, and Wreaths of Maine in Waldoboro. But it was this wreath from Danforth, Maine’s Down on the Farm that provides our Day 11 pick: the Wild Maine Blueberry Gift Pack wreath. This handcrafted balsam fir wreath includes a choice of either Wild Maine Blueberry Truffles or a Wild Maine Blueberry assortment created by Savour Chocolatier to transform it into a unique gift package. A perfectly sweet way to add a little blue to your holiday.

12 Wild Days of Blues Countdown Starts Today!

We’re counting down the holidays with 12 days of pure blue!

By highlighting a wild blueberry, blueberry, or super healthy fruit-related holiday item every day until December 24th, we’re providing plenty of ways to have a Blue Christmas, Chanukah or any day that celebrates the season.

Grab the sleigh reins, Santa, because off we go!

Day 12: Winterport Winery’s Blueberry Wine

Winterport Winery a Maine winery/business located in Winterport (that’s a bit north of Bucksport) has a mouth-watering fruit wine selection that’s fitting for tasting, coiffing, or giving. They offer a selection of award-winning fruit wines with the added charm of being a family business started by owner and winemaker Michael Anderson. They specialize in wines that slant toward indigenous offerings, such as apple and blueberry flavors.

And, their interest in combining wine with food is evident in their establishment of Pairings, a joint venture with Penobscot Bay Brewery (the brewery can be found on-site) where they spread the knowledge of pairing food with wine and beer through educational seminars and tastings around the state.

Their fruit-forward choices make perfect home-grown hostess gifts for the holidays, or something special to share when the bustling is done. You might try a Sparkling Apricot Wine when you want something effervescent, or indulge in Berry Chocolate, a raspberry-blueberry wine with a velvety chocolate finish.

Our choice to kick off 12 Wild Days of Blues: Blueberry Wine (Dry). It’s one of two blueberry wines offered by the winery. This one has a cherry red color and is dry but smooth, and pairs wonderfully with a rich chicken or ham dish, pasta, or a selection of mild cheeses.

Find Winterport Wines at many local merchants, or, depending on your location, have them shipped to you or a lucky gift recipient.

The 12 Days of Blues Countdown – You Can Help! How will wild blueberries and good fruit health be part of your holiday season? Let us know and you could be part of our 12 Days of Blues Countdown to the Holidays. All you need is a great idea for how something a little bit wild and a little bit blue – whether it’s a gift idea, recipe, or any holiday inspiration – will play a part in of your holiday celebration. Then, let us know about it at [email protected].