These sound just like ours. Fresh, if they are allowed to hang a long time after turning full color, they are pretty good but nothing I get excited about. I think raspberry is probably the closest. But the texture isn’t as good, and by that point they needed to be netted or you are only getting the few that the robins overlooked.
Cooked, I’ve only done jam so far, they are one of the very best. The flavors change, enhance - very berry. The color is gorgeous, they don’t require pectin. Delicious.
That sounds good, can you point to it or post it? Or tell me where you found it?
I grow blueberries too, but they are best for fresh eating. I want to add some for cooking one of these days. Most I have are sweet. But yeah for honeyberries. I got my wife hooked on honeyberries and black currants last season. She never tried them before. She was intrigued and loved the black currants. I was surprised at that. I make a syrup, and go from there. She had the raw syrup vr ice cream and said it was the best she ever tasted. You can make leather with the syrup too. I use it mostly for cordials. I made a syrup of yellow raspberries and made fruit leather, wow! Excellent!
For the first time, I am using a solar powered bird alarm. whenever it detects motion, it lets off an eagle call. my dog attacks the contraption every time it alarms. I hope it works.
It came out of a book called “Grocery Gardening”.
6 tbsp melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 1/2 cup blueberries
350 oven Mix the wet and dry separately then combine and fold in berries. Cook for 25 mins.
I used a chai spice mix instead of cinnamon. It can also take more fruit. I was planning on going with 2 cups of haskap.
All of my Haskaps have flowered and fruited at this point. Beast, Beauty and Blizzard all overlap in my orchard. First year, sometimes Haskaps/Honeyberries do strange things. Half my orchard flowered first year, other half did not. I think its just a matter of plants being too young to fruit well.
I think some may find this interesting. I was given a preview of Logie’s Honeyberry guide to share. Also he has offered to make his full guide available for free in PDF form if you send him a request to logie@lovehoneyberry.com. Its a fairly impressive book, with over 330 pages of pictures and information. He will also be releasing an updated version for next year, current version was created in 2016. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ilxVliK2vmennPiA2j5ylsGbHN4Hixgz/view?usp=drivesdk
Thanks to the info here, I’m netting the haskap patch today. I hadn’t realized how long the fruit can hang so would pick as they turned. Now that I know they can sit, I’m getting them undercover before the cedar waxwing gang can even show up!
There is a large fruit set so I’m pretty excited and hopeful for the haul. Waiting for enough to make muffins will be tough.
I have four honeyberries, all two years old now i believe. They are giving me a large handful each day. It’s hard to have enough to do any baking with when you have three ravenous children, they’ve all been eaten fresh so far.
As for flavor, when picked right after they turn blueish purple, they make my kids’ faces squint with the sourness, but they eat them anyways. Someday when they move out I’ll be able to taste them at peak ripeness I get so excited to see berries that I don’t have the heart to tell them to wait.
I have one Maxie Japanese haskap. Bought it with a Solo for pollination but Solo died. Maxie bloomed at the same time as Aurora, and has set fruit. I had been under the impression the Japanese varieties needed another Japanese variety to pollinate but that doesn’t appear true.
I had four cups worth from basically two plants but a couple came from three others. I made a blueberry pie with 3/4 cup of sugar. It was strange because some pieces were delicious and others were bitter. The good ones were kind of like a blueberry but not that strong. It’s really a taste of its own. The thing I really liked was how much fruit came off of these little bushes. When they get big they will really produce lots of fruit. My favorite bush is one of the indigo bushes. It’s the largest berry and the sweetest. It’s also my second smallest bush though so it has some growing to do. This would be the bush to spread around for me, but it’s only sixteen inches tall with new growth! It’s in the more shady area of the bunch. I did draw and name the bushes on paper. I’ll have to look for it. There is one big berry on top of this bowl that came from this plant.
I finished the picking today. Netting made a huge difference in both the amounts and the size/flavour of the berries. The cedar waxwings were quite ticked off about being denied. I had one about 2’ feet in front of me while picking this afternoon.
Our total haul was somewhere around 16 pounds so about 2-4 pounds each from the older bushes.
I modified a recipe and got mini loaves of a lemon berry cake that we’re happy with.
Also did a trial run on using them in smoothies and they do work very well. The skins are very soft so they purée completely.
Tomorrow I’m doing a berry custard pie for a wine tasting so I can get some more general opinions on their flavour.
Next year I hope to have a dehydrator so trying to dry them will be on the list.
I have several of the newer, supposedly sweeter varieties bearing for the first time this year. To tell the truth, there isn’t much difference in flavor in most of them. They get much huger berries than I expected in their new location.
This is the first year where I have had both a) sufficient production and b) sustained bird netting to have a good tasting. Last year my kids moved the netting to mow the grass and by the time I noticed the next morning 95% of the berries were gone. They are often said to have a raspberry/blueberry kind of taste. I don’t taste any raspberry. They have blueberry colour and similar texture at one point, but I think they have to be softer than a blue berry to be fully ripe. This year I have harvested indigo gem, aurora, and Borealis. There is a significant tartness to these berries, both initially and as an aftertaste. So I can’t say I love the taste, but I am still grazing aggressively. There is no other home grown fruit I can eat right now so I will be keeping these bushes.
They look a little under ripe @tonyOmahaz5. Wait until they are super blue, no red tinge and nearly squish when you pick them. They’ll be far less tart
I love Logie’s book and if you ever have time to strike up a convo with him, I highly recommend it. Him and Hare at Berries Unlimited are a wealth of knowledge if you can get either on the phone for a good chat.
Just an FYI @Viridian, I’ve tried drying them and just as UofS states, they dont dry evenly and it’s rather difficult. If you want to dry them, I suggest making fruit leather. This worked way better for me and ended up giving me the same concept as a raisin. Making wine this year, I’ll get to try it at “prison hooch” level here in less than a week when I rack the primary.
I get so excited to see berries that I don’t have the heart to tell them to wait.
