Anyone grow honey berries?

[CathyA]

I've seen these in seed catalogs, but I've never grown them.
Anyone in zone 5 here every grow them? Someone told me they are higher in antioxidants than blueberries.

[Rosemary]

I have been contemplating adding them to our yard. This is the source where I would obtain them for our zone 4 area:
http://www.honeyberryusa.com/honeyberry-plants-1.html

[RosieTR]

Huh. These aren't related to the Saskatoon blueberry? Don't know the genus/species Latin names. This is intriguing but do you know how much water they take? We are zone 5ish but semi-arid. The Saskatoon blueberries don't do terribly well in full sun here without a large amount of supplemental water, but the currants grow wild and taste a lot like somewhat sour blueberries in jams and baked goods. Anyway, $15 or $30 isn't too bad for an experimental plant or two, esp if they produce jam-suitable fruit! I think our raspberries were nearly that each, and only 2 of the 4 showed any growth.

[Tussiemussies]

That is interesting Cathy, have never heard of these berries. That would be great if they are higher in antioxidents...

[CathyA]

I don't really know much about them. I've seen them in seed catalogs, and the other day a guy on a birding forum I'm on showed pics of his honeyberries (while explaining what kind of bird netting he uses over them).
He said they are pretty tart, but get a bit sweeter the longer they're on the bush, after they turn blue. He lives in Canada. He said that you need 2 kinds for pollination.
I don't know.......I can't tolerate tart too much....unless I put alot of sugar on it.........and that sort of cancels out the anti-oxidants!

[Tussiemussies]

I don't really know much about them. I've seen them in seed catalogs, and the other day a guy on a birding forum I'm on showed pics of his honeyberries (while explaining what kind of bird netting he uses over them).
He said they are pretty tart, but get a bit sweeter the longer they're on the bush, after they turn blue. He lives in Canada. He said that you need 2 kinds for pollination.
I don't know.......I can't tolerate tart too much....unless I put alot of sugar on it.........and that sort of cancels out the anti-oxidants!


Hi again Cathy, I don't like the tart either but you could always sprinkle them with stevia, a plant based natural sweetener with zero calories and no side effects. I sprinkle it on grapefruit. Sounds like an interesting plant. How many fruit bushes do you have? What kind?

[CathyA]

Tussiemussies.........I don't have any fruit bushes. Sorry if I made it sound like I did. When we first moved out here 31 years ago, there was an apple orchard, a blueberry patch. I planted 100 strawberry plants. Then we found out how much the weeds loved our property.........and we don't have those things now. We do have lots of wild bramble bushes........but don't get much off them.
Sure would be nice to have some berry bushes.........but we already are overwhelmed with all that we have to do here.
Although on the way home from the grocery store today, I saw someone with a raspberry trellis in their backyard..........and I started thinking again.......... :)

Oh......we have lots of wild elderberry bushes all over the property. I used to make elderberry jelly and loved it. But the birds eat the berries when they're unripe, and there's very few left for jelly.

[Tussiemussies]

Hi Cathy, no, you didn't make it sound like you had a lot of fruit bushes, I just assumed it since you were looking into one that wasn't so prevalent.

Have you ever thought of covering your elderberry bushes with netting once it starts getting fruit on it?

That is another bush that I have never tasted the fruit from it...what do they taste like?
Chris

[CathyA]

I guess I have never had the energy to cover the bushes. I do have the netting.......just not the energy. haha
Plus, birds can get caught in that netting, pretty badly. :(
There's some that get left at the end of the summer......but I'm so busy with the garden, I just sort of give up.
But I love the flavor of the jelly. Its sort of a deeper, richer flavor.
My mother made an elderberry pie once when I was young, and ewwww..........there were about 2 millions little seeds in it. the flavor was great......but not the seeds.
But the jelly is great.

[Tussiemussies]

I never knew that the birds could get caught in the netting. That is horrible. If I had fruit bushes I probably would be too tired also if I also had a garden too.

That is funny that your Mom's pie was loaded with seeds! LOL. Maybe someday I'll get to try the berries...:)

[CathyA]

When we first moved out here, I ordered an elderberry bush to plant. It died. But the next year, I discovered they were growing wild all over the property. haha

When I was younger, I used to go out in the country and pick tons of them, between the roads and the railroad tracks. Probably not the most organic berries!

Its hard to pick all the little berries, so I started just clipping off the stem with the clusters on them. Then I would wash them off in a big canning pot. Then I would heat them up, small stems and all, until the juice started to flow. Then I'd put them in a big cheesecloth and hang them over a pot and let the juices all drain out. Then I'd add the sugar and heat it up and stir and stir and stir.........

I used to put paraffin wax over the top of each jar, but then I started water-bathing the jars.

I'm surprised you can't buy elderberry jelly anywhere.
Now I'm really hungry for elderberry jelly! :)

[CathyA]

P.S. I think there is a red elderberry berry that is poisonous...........so don't eat those! :0!