Like gooseberries, currants are still banned in some states and counties due to white pine blister rust concerns. The currants in the photos are grown in northern Pennsylvania where they ripen with blueberries, and serve as good additional mid-summer berries following the wave of spring and early summer berries. Black currants are mid size between… Continue reading Red Currants & Black Currants

Gooseberries are a precocious, large, juicy sweet-tart berry that typically ripen during blueberry season. These are a nice complement to blueberries, most similar to grapes, a bit crunchier, more firm. In a pie gooseberries taste somewhat like rhubarb and mix well with blueberries and other fruits. Most varieties have thorns. Sprawling bush shape. Hardy to… Continue reading Gooseberries

Of the past few weeks. The early varieties of blueberries here are Duke and Blueray. Juneberry came and went too. Goji also ripened though I missed getting a photo of those.

The smaller Nanking Cherries were more flavorful and sweeter than the larger North Star cherries, which were juicier.

Pre-blueberry fruit picking: two varieties of goumi, Nanking cherry, and haskap. Birds got most of the Juneberries (Serviceberry, Saskatoon). And don’t currently grow strawberries.

Excluding for the moment Juneberry, the real surprise to me here is the humble Nanking cherry. Though it colors up later than haskap or goumi, it gets sweet as early as they do, or sweeter earlier. Also, it’s a legit tree fruit that grows as low and precocious as a bush. A miniaturized tree fruit.… Continue reading Early June Fruit: Juneberry, Haskap, Goumi, Nanking Cherry

Red and white Nanking cherry:

Carmine goumi is considerably sweeter than Red Gem and Sweet Scarlet goumi, also much larger, more pulp, less skin. Carmine is like a small red grape with one big long seed in the middle, shape of a skinny football. Unless dead ripe, goumi will have some tartness to it. Again, Carmine is significantly sweeter and… Continue reading Goumi Time