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Post by castanea on Jan 15, 2012 13:30:01 GMT -5
Has anyone grown these?
They look like they would have a lot of promise in many colder temperate areas but I don't know anyone who has grown them or even eaten the fruit.
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Post by wolfcub on Jan 15, 2012 15:19:04 GMT -5
I grow Saskatoons and so does my sister who lives in Alberta. They make great pies and jam but you must add lemon to bring out the flavour.
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Post by atash on Jan 15, 2012 15:54:42 GMT -5
I have some young plants, and will obtain some more, preferably local natives. They occur around Puget Sound.
I have never eaten them (my seedlings are all of 3 inches high), but I heard about them from one of the members of one of my websites, who reckons them pretty good.
Amazing they've been overlooked as much as they have been. They occur both along the Pacific Northwest coast, but also inland, which suggests they are more adaptable than most fruits. Apparently they tolerate our humidity better than many more disease-prone fruits, and to severe cold and heat too.
Native berries fairly common here, but most not very palatable and some are toxic, so I may simply never have noticed them, until, ironically, someone in a different climate pointed them out. Her high plains prairies are covered in them.
They also happen to be naturally short enough not to require ladders (some other species are trees), and they do not need to be grafted. Probably not as vulnerable to Phytophthora as blueberries. Sounds like a win to me.
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jan 15, 2012 18:28:40 GMT -5
they were used as a city landscaping tree here about 10 years ago, so there's areas with a well-established plant every 30 ft for blocks. i really like the flavor fresh...like a blueberry/applesauce flavor with hints of vanilla from the seeds. don't know the variety they used, and i couldn't get cuttings from the city bushes to take..i've gotten a couple named varieties recently, but they're still quite small.
the seeds are a bit bigger than can be easily ignored, but i think they add good things to the flavor.
like 'em in mixed-berry pies, too.
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Post by castanea on Jan 15, 2012 21:16:51 GMT -5
Everything I have read about it suggests that it has a lot of promise but it isn't very widely known or very widely available. I originally assuemd that both Raintree and One Green world would be seliing it but neither one has it. They sell many fruiting bushes that are arguably less interesting so I'm not sure why they haven't picked up on it yet.
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Post by atash on Jan 15, 2012 23:13:00 GMT -5
Castanea, remind me to set some aside for you as I acquire more. I will try to acquire some local provinences.
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Post by MikeH on Jan 15, 2012 23:13:43 GMT -5
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jan 15, 2012 23:18:18 GMT -5
i got one or two of mine from raintree...also seeds from bountiful gardens (though it will definitely be a while before those produce - they're about an inch and a half tall after their first year's growth).
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Post by castanea on Jan 16, 2012 2:33:23 GMT -5
Thanks, Mike. I totally missed the fact that service berries and Saskatoons are the same. |
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Post by castanea on Jan 16, 2012 2:33:44 GMT -5
Castanea, remind me to set some aside for you as I acquire more. I will try to acquire some local provinences. That should be interesting. |
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Post by MikeH on Jan 16, 2012 7:28:49 GMT -5
Thanks, Mike. I totally missed the fact that service berries and Saskatoons are the same. They're also called Juneberries. Nursery naming gets a bit loose but Cornell has a listing of nurseries and cultivars. |
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Post by castanea on Jan 16, 2012 13:42:13 GMT -5
Thanks, Mike. I totally missed the fact that service berries and Saskatoons are the same. They're also called Juneberries. Nursery naming gets a bit loose but Cornell has a listing of nurseries and cultivars. Great list from SLN. Thanks. I'm guessing that one of the awareness and marketing problems that exists with this plant is that there are three major names and some other minor names for it. It seems to have some popularity regionally, but without a single accepted name, it is having some difficulty getting wide recognition. Everything I read about it though suggests it is a very nice fruiting plant. I wonder how it handles summer heat. |
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jan 16, 2012 17:31:02 GMT -5
seems to handle heat (done fruiting before then, anyway) fine, from what i've seen.
the berries don't have a very long life expectancy after they're picked, is their main shortcoming in my book. the stem pulls out a bit too big a chunk of flesh, so they're not as stable as, say, a blueberry. a couple days, tops, refrigerated. i always freeze what i can't eat fresh.
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Post by castanea on Jan 16, 2012 18:14:35 GMT -5
Good to know. Thanks
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Post by MikeH on Jan 16, 2012 21:37:16 GMT -5
And they do get juniper rust. We lost all the fruit this year which is our first growing them. We don't have any junipers so it would seem that a neighbour does or that they are growing wild somewhere nearby. The disease is favoured by cool wet spring weather which is exactly what we had this year. Regards, Mike |
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