UK Food Forest Berry Abundance

Some shots of the berries growing in my UK Food Forest.

Which is your favourite?

I absolutely love gooseberries! They're on my list of things to grow when I get my own garden or allotment in the future. It's so hard to find them in shops :(

Yes, the supermarkets only sell a select few berries. There is so much potential when you grow your own. I have 3 varieties of gooseberries and they are all delicious!

Wow Luke, That's a picture to gladden the spirit!
I'm guessing that you're a bit further South than I (easy guess!) since I just picked my first ripe raspberries today. The blackcurrants are just about to ripen, still a bit sharp, although changing colour nicely.
My favourite soft fruit is probably the raspberry. It just does so well here and fruits like mad once it gets going, for most of the summer. The ones I picked today should have been autumn ones (I'd have to look up the variety), but they try and ripen in November and never really make it, so I leave the canes to overwinter and get fruit off them early in the season the following year instead.
I really like strawberries too (sweeties that are good for you), but just don't pay enough attention to them and they normally get a bit swamped in other plants to really do well. One day I'll make a bit more effort and get a glut...till then I get the odd few, enjoy the smaller alpine ones, and over order deliberately in the shop when the Scottish ones are in season so I have to make strawberry jam ;)
I see you have blueberries coming on too. I'm hoping to get a good crop this year. We'll see if the blackbirds leave me any. Are those jostaberries, or anther blackcurrant/gooseberry cross as well?
Do you have problems with wildlife helping themselves? How do you deal with it? The worst fruit for that for me is the Haskap (honey berries). the time between me thinking 'these are almost ripe', to the birds stripping the bush is about one day! Next year I may have to try netting. At least those bushes are really compact, so won't take much protection.

Hi Nancy, I am based in North West England but these all gold raspberries have been producing for a while now.

The blackcurrants have to be fully ripe before I pick for the sweet flavour to come out.

Strawberries are my favourite - I cover the whole patch with a thin layer of woodchips at the end of the year and this helps to thin out naturally.

Yes, they are Jostaberries (good spot!) not many people know what they are but they are certainly delicious.

I have attracted so many birds, but I never netted my plants. The two ways I deal with birds are as follows:

1. Grow more - when I have so many berries growing they can have their share and it does not impact the overall abundance.

2. Pick as soon as ripe - I regularly check to see when they are ripe because the birds will be onto them as soon as they are ripe (they are not stupid!). If I left for a couple of weeks until after they are ripe, the birds may not be so generous.

Hope this helps!

Yes I'm going for the 'grow more' but the birds don't always seem to accept "fair share" as a principle!

I used to have a currant seedling that grew up in the pathway in my house in Solihull. I transplanted it and it grew vigorously and produced luscious sweet blackcurrants. We worked out eventually it must have been a gooseberry-blackcurrant cross. However it didn't like Skye and never fruited here, although otherwise seemed healthy. I really don't know why, since both gooseberries and blackcurrants otherwise do fine.

I'd love to see more of your food forest if you'd like to share? Maybe in the forest garden forum? this thread has a discussion about different sorts of forest gardens, or you could start your own thread. I've had a little look at your youtube site - nicely presented! I'll catch up with more of your videos later.

I was just about to make my own post because I have josta berries coming out of my ears but none of us really want to eat them. They are ok but we fill up on the blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries and currants and the jostaberries just hang there uneaten.

I'd love to know if you do anything with them besides eat them fresh. I never ate them before I planted the bush a few years ago.

Are they any good frozen, dried, cooked, juiced, etc.?

Hi Jenny, to be honest we end up eating all of them fresh. Jostaberries are very nice when they are fully ripe - deep purple/black and soft. If they are picked a little unripe I really don't like them. I can't imagine why you could not freeze them, because it works with almost all other berries.

Hi Nancy, there always a balance in nature but I know birds can sometimes get greedy! Yes I will look at the other forums on food forest gardens, but my main point of content is my youtube channel.

Luke Kelsall wrote:Hi Jenny, to be honest we end up eating all of them fresh. Jostaberries are very nice when they are fully ripe - deep purple/black and soft. If they are picked a little unripe I really don't like them. I can't imagine why you could not freeze them, because it works with almost all other berries.

I'm pretty sure they are as ripe as they are going to get (deep dark purple and squishy) but I keep trying them in case the flavor improves. I guess I'm just not a fan of the flavor. It's not a bad taste but maybe too floral-y? We have aronia berries in the fall and there is something similar to the flavor... I'm not a fan of the aronia berries either.

I'll keep snacking on them. Maybe they'll end up growing on me.