Love blueberries? Sharing your enthusiasm for the summer fruit may earn you a nice bonus thanks to a new online sweepstakes.
July is National Blueberry Month and the US Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC), a group that researches and promotes blueberry consumption, is celebrating appropriately, with two contests to engage and delight blueberry fans.
To indulge their biggest blueberry supporters, USHBC will host its first-ever blueberry eating contest on Saturday, July 13: The Great American Blueberry Eating Championship. The contest will be held on the thematically appropriate blue courts of MPL’s mid-season pickleball tournament in Grand Rapids, MI. In fact, blueberries are the official fruit of Major League Pickleball.
Fresh blueberrys on the bush
As mid-tournament entertainment, pickleball stars and tournament attendees can watch professional eaters vie for the contest’s grand prize and set the record for most blueberries ever eaten in a contest. And it’s going to be a lot. Earlier this June, professional competitive eater Geoff Esper won the Mattituck Lions Club World Strawberry Shortcake Eating Championship by eating 23.75 pounds of strawberry shortcake in eight minutes. Because the blueberry eating contest is new, there is no record yet set, but in July 2007, Patrick Bertoletti ate 9.17 lbs blueberry pie at the Stand By Me World Pie Eating Championship in eight minutes. A pound of fresh blueberries is about 200 blueberries, give or take, which means the winner may potentially need to ingest over 1000 blueberries for a shot at winning.
Anyone 18 years and older can enter online (and sign a waiver) for a chance to eat the most berries during an eight minute eating showdown. In addition to glory and a purple-stained mouth, the first place winner will take home $4,000, followed by a second place prize $2,000, $1250 for third place a, $500 for fourth place and a $250 award to the fifth place winner.
Hot dogs are placed on the competition table ahead of the 2023 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July … [+]
The Great American Blueberry Eating Championship falls under Major League Eating’s (MLE) host of competitions, perhaps most famous for their annual Fourth of July Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating contest at Coney Island. Additional eating competitions this summer include The Great Midwest Rib Fest World Rib-Eating Championship on July 27 in Prior Lake, Minnesota and The 2024 World Slopper Eating Championship at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo on August 31.
Those who can’t make the blueberry competition (or are in training for the massive eating event by scarfing down blueberries) can still show their love of blueberry consumption and win some cash. An online contest throughout July is offering $10,000 to its winner. To enter, Instagram users can post a social media video of themselves eating fresh blueberries in their own unique way, and tag @blueberries and #blueberrychallenge during National Blueberry Month to try and win the grand prize.
Those in search of ideas or inspiration for their blueberry content can also visit USHBC’s Instagram page and website for recipes.