So what is the Blueberry Project? Well, let me first give you some history- stories that will show you why this is so important to me, and to everyone who can remember.
When my mom was a little girl, she lived in the North Hills near this park where there were really beautiful forests. We still go there sometimes, and it's really fun to explore and play in. When she was a kid, there were whole areas of the forest where patches of blueberry and blackberry bushes grew in abundance. She could spend hours in those forests eating berries until her face was blue. Now, those bushes are all but gone due to home development projects and the lack of public pressure to preserve them.When I was little, I lived in North Allegheny, and my back yard was half forest. At the edge of the forest there were black raspberry bushes. MMM! I can still remember the delicious taste of those amazing berries. We never forget those precious sense-memories of childhood, even after probably 35 years in my mother's case. Well, when I was 7 we moved to Brighton Heights in the North Side, and shortly afterwards we discovered some boison-berry (or mulberry, not sure) trees growing close by (and I plan on harvesting from these this July). We also planted a blueberry bush in our backyard last summer, and she is growing fruits!
I grew up reading Blueberries For Sal, the children's book about the little girl named Sal who meets a bear who is also picking blueberries in her wild blueberry patch. Remember this book? I would imagine how much fun Sal feels being able to pick all the wild blueberries she wants, and how satisfying it is for her to be able to eat all the fresh picked fruit she desires! We never forget our memories of picking, tasting, eating fresh berries off the bush as children. I want to bring these abundant berry patches back into our home city, so everyone can enjoy these warm feelings together again.
That is the essence of The Blueberry Project. It's not complex; it's really just my desire to see us all being able to enjoy some of the simplest pleasures in life - berry picking in our own home forests.

