Do you mainly eat them fresh?
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Yes fresh is best in my opinion. If you freeze them they develop a cardboard like taste but my mom still makes good desserts out of them by adding lemon juice.
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I assume you mean out of hand, unprepared.
It must be that native American blood in you. In my travels of western Canada and U.S., I have sampled ripe berries of A. alnifolia, canadensis, and ovalis. The local Rubus and Vaccinium were far better to my tastes.
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The juneberries are very popular with visitors. They ripen in june obviously here. Kansas sun is hot and has a tendency to make sweet fruits. Have had peaches from Georgia and watermelon from Texas and Arkansas that was exceptional im assuming for similar reasons. Drought helps as well like they have in Colorado. Colorado peaches can be some of the best. @fruitnut hits high brix on his stone fruits there in west Texas.
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I tasted berries from my amelanchier northline that I bought from native plants nursery too years ago. They were delicious fresh. I have not had any other variety yet.
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That looks about like them. Take a look at this thread they look alot like yours Juneberries!
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Thank you!! Those are some lovely shrubs in that thread! I recognize the fruit, Looking forward to eating some later in the year.
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i have northline, jb30, smoky and wild A. Canadensis. only northline and the wild has fruited. northline is sweeter with more and bigger berries. i plan to graft over the wild to northline this spring.
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How big is your smoky? How long have you had it?
I have been wanting to try one more small Amelanchier for fruit. I am considering regent.
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just planted 2 of them last spring. they’re only about 12in.
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Thank you my bushes are very short compared to those in the north but they work great for us. Glad you liked the photos. They do self seed frequently.
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A Serviceberry,an unnamed alnifolia,is what I started with,planting fruiting bushes and trees around my yard.At that time,while reading about different varieties,a lady near New York City was starting to grow some and said she chose Regent and was excited.About two years later,she was finally able to try them.I can’t remember her exact words,but she was disgusted about her purchase and efforts.
I’ve tried Smoky and wasn’t thrilled and gave my plant away.The only one growing at my place now is Northline,which has good flavor and may be the most planted for U-pick in Canada.
If getting more,they’d be like the alnifolia that Steve has,from Canada,JB30 or Martin,Thiessen,Pembina and Honeywood.
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Hi groggyfrog. What is the size of your property? We also don’t have a big property about 13068 square feet. But I didn’t get that in the way. I still ended up planting around 60-70 fruits trees. I gave away a lot of landscaping trees and planted fruit trees 4-5 feet apart, i also grafted so so many varieties. Looking forward to also removing our grass once my wife let’s me lol.
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i forgot . i also have a 4ft tall apple serviceberry that’s about 5ft. tall. supposed to be a fairly large tree.
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Honeyberry USA has the Canadian ones. one of them is as small as regent but with supposedly better tasting berries.
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Our lot is much smaller, we have around 4700 sq feet with 2500 sq feet being the backyard. Thankfully, our house occupies less than half of the land.
I love that you have so many trees! I was worried I was planting trees too close (5ft) but feel better now.
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I actually have a few trees that are 2-3 feet apart. I noticed slow growth which is the plan because i just want to keep them small so I can easily manage them. I’m sure you’re familiar with backyard orchard culture from Dave Wilson. Good luck with your home orchard and don’t forget to graft!
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I’ve snacked on many cultivar’s, what I noticed is all were unremarkable until they turned from reddish purple to black. They would change in a day, ho-hum to delicious. The birds knew it also, I could see lots of purple ones untouched ready to go black, next day gone…
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@John_P , love the bio. I would do the same thing if my wife didn’t slow me down. Made me smile.
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