Three days after snow and the final freeze (hopefully, 28 F), the first blue honeysuckle berry is picked ripe with the gel texture of a grape and the flavor of a mild wild blueberry. This berry was probably ripe days ago but overlooked on the little bush. Blue Diamond variety. Meanwhile the much larger Kuchi/Maxie… Continue reading First Ripe Berry 2020

A day after a dusting of snow, some of the first berries of spring begin to blush toward being ripe, juneberries aka serviceberries and blue honeysuckle berries, variety Kuchi aka Maxie.

Some new varieties ripening of late. From top to bottom: Negra D’Adge, GT-1, Siblawi, Pingo de Mel, Verdino del Nord, Sucrette, Pernette Noir, Negra D’Adge (again), Golden Riverside (278-128), GT-1 (again), Planera, Alvas Verdal, Madeleine Des Deux Saisons.

Autumn Olive, aka Autumnberry, classified as an invasive species, produces a sweet berry in late summer, fall. Related to spring-ripening goumi:

Goji ripens through summer, very juicy, a little spicy. No berry flavor in goji. This Phoenix Tears variety tastes and looks like a shrunken cross between a mild Tabasco pepper and a Roma tomato. A juicy mild spicy bland vegetable taste with a bush fruit growth habit. Continuous fruiting. Bumble bees pollinate, male and female… Continue reading Goji Berries

A few figs: 2 Celeste, 4 Ronde de Bordeaux, 1 Scott’s Yellow showing that light figs are typically bigger than dark figs. Celeste traces back to Malta, Ronde de Bordeaux to Bordeaux, France, and Scott’s Yellow to Louisiana State University’s fig propagation program.

Florea is the first fig to ripen here this year (in pot), ripe today. It’s always first Florea, or RdB, or Improved Celeste at the end of July. Great sugar-caramel flavor. This year for the first time I’m keeping an eye on Planera which may be on the verge of swelling. Supposedly an early fig.… Continue reading Florea, First Again

Depending on the propagator or marketer, improved edible blue honeysuckle is called haskap or yezberry or honeyberry, etc. Haskap has a blueberry-grape or blueberry-raspberry flavor with an irregular shape. Haskap is highly nutritious, to say the least. Haskap is extremely hardy, including thriving in the Yukon. Ripens early summer. The varied shape of haskap can… Continue reading Haskap

Goumi berry is not a grape nor grape related but has the flavor of a mild cherry grape. A cherry flavor grape. It tastes as it looks. The soft nutty seed or pit inside can be chewed and sucked of its mild sunflower seed-like flavor then the remaining woody fibers swallowed or spat out. Taste… Continue reading Goumi: The Cherry Grape