Hah, unusual fruit is my area! We make a Haskap Liqueur, drinking it is much easier than growing your own ;) I've also got about 400 pounds of sea berries in the freezer at the moment, the flavor is basically lemon juice mixed with blue cheese and olives, definitely not for casual snacking. And finally all you ever might want to know about service tree http://www.treeforeurope.com/
Ha! Awesome! First, I love "arbitrary stupid goal". I think I have a lot of those. LOL! Second, this is how I feel about everything I plant...that I cannot get enough to make anything substantial. I took half of my basil plant to make pesto and it only made about a 1/4 cup. Sigh. I guess I will get another 1/4 cup from the second half? Ha!
When you start really producing berries, you can sell tickets to visit your library! xo
Keep trying with jostaberries - I planted two bushes 5 or 6 years ago in SW Washington and this year was able to freeze 5 qt bags while leaving almost the same amount for the birds. They make a great decoy to keep the birds distracted from our blueberries because the birds absolutely love jostaberries. If you have lots of blossoms on your bushes, maybe you need some mason bees?
Thank you! That would be a huge harvest of jostaberries, and keeping the birds out of the blueberries is a good side benefit. I'm curious -- how often do you prune them? This bush grows so vigorously I have to cut it back, but I worry that I'm removing canes that would give me a lot of fruit.
They do grow vigorously! I prune every spring, and treat the bushes similarly to my fruit trees. I generally prune off up to a third of the longer branches to keep them more compact, leaving a bud at the tip in the direction I want that branch to grow. I do remove a few branches where the growth is dense to improve air circulation. Good luck!
I found your substack via Superabundant. I love the name; because I have always felt that way about place. I try to give back to my places (San Mateo in California and now Portland) by planting native plants.
I had a huckleberry, forest strawberry, and an elderberry in San Mateo and now in Portland I tried to grow a native oval leaved blueberry, which is related to the huckleberry and is an ethereal forest dweller up on Marquam Hill. Sadly the heat killed it and the source (Native Foods Nursery in Dexter) is having trouble with their crop. One more not so rare native berry is the thimble berry, like a raspberry only better also found everywhere in the Marquam Nature Preserve. I would recommend both if you have room in your berry patch.
Wow that's a lot of berries!! Years ago when I moved to Picabo, Idaho (in the Wood River Valley), I planted blueberries. My mother-in-law (4th generation in the area) said they wouldn't survive but I was determined. I regularly measured the acidity of the soil, added coffee grounds, pine needles, etc and... sure enough, after two years the bushes were gone. Just too brutally cold.
I should send you a copy of my book Berries: A Global History — you definitely need to add a haskap to the menagerie!
Thanks! I'm trying to locate a nearby serviceberry tree, too, so I don't have to plant it myself.
I just had serviceberry planted in our front yard. It was part of a community project bringing native trees back to our area.
Hah, unusual fruit is my area! We make a Haskap Liqueur, drinking it is much easier than growing your own ;) I've also got about 400 pounds of sea berries in the freezer at the moment, the flavor is basically lemon juice mixed with blue cheese and olives, definitely not for casual snacking. And finally all you ever might want to know about service tree http://www.treeforeurope.com/
Ha! Awesome! First, I love "arbitrary stupid goal". I think I have a lot of those. LOL! Second, this is how I feel about everything I plant...that I cannot get enough to make anything substantial. I took half of my basil plant to make pesto and it only made about a 1/4 cup. Sigh. I guess I will get another 1/4 cup from the second half? Ha!
When you start really producing berries, you can sell tickets to visit your library! xo
Maybe I should have a cocktail party where everyone gets three berries. Just three.
Keep trying with jostaberries - I planted two bushes 5 or 6 years ago in SW Washington and this year was able to freeze 5 qt bags while leaving almost the same amount for the birds. They make a great decoy to keep the birds distracted from our blueberries because the birds absolutely love jostaberries. If you have lots of blossoms on your bushes, maybe you need some mason bees?
Thank you! That would be a huge harvest of jostaberries, and keeping the birds out of the blueberries is a good side benefit. I'm curious -- how often do you prune them? This bush grows so vigorously I have to cut it back, but I worry that I'm removing canes that would give me a lot of fruit.
They do grow vigorously! I prune every spring, and treat the bushes similarly to my fruit trees. I generally prune off up to a third of the longer branches to keep them more compact, leaving a bud at the tip in the direction I want that branch to grow. I do remove a few branches where the growth is dense to improve air circulation. Good luck!
(by spring, I mean early just as the buds are starting to form)
Hahaha! If we muddle them, it would work. Snort!
Sea buckthorn! Great post.
I found your substack via Superabundant. I love the name; because I have always felt that way about place. I try to give back to my places (San Mateo in California and now Portland) by planting native plants.
I had a huckleberry, forest strawberry, and an elderberry in San Mateo and now in Portland I tried to grow a native oval leaved blueberry, which is related to the huckleberry and is an ethereal forest dweller up on Marquam Hill. Sadly the heat killed it and the source (Native Foods Nursery in Dexter) is having trouble with their crop. One more not so rare native berry is the thimble berry, like a raspberry only better also found everywhere in the Marquam Nature Preserve. I would recommend both if you have room in your berry patch.
Wow that's a lot of berries!! Years ago when I moved to Picabo, Idaho (in the Wood River Valley), I planted blueberries. My mother-in-law (4th generation in the area) said they wouldn't survive but I was determined. I regularly measured the acidity of the soil, added coffee grounds, pine needles, etc and... sure enough, after two years the bushes were gone. Just too brutally cold.
I admire your curiosity and determination!