What berry do you like the best?

There are so many berries and so little time! I want to get absolutely all of them but have to settle with a few varieties a year. So what is your absolute favorite so I may add it to my list of must tries. Also, why is it your favorite?

Black current - Taste great , full of vitamines , lots of uses , I use jars of jam as currency , very easy to multiply a couple of years you can go from a couple to twenty will grow lots of places minimal maintainance . I cut once every three years Did I mention you can make jam ? Does not grow too big and no spines
A must in my book I obtained most of mine for free by offering to trim someones berry bushes
Dont forget the jam

David

Gooseberries. I like them fresh out of hand, for Gooseberry pie, and for smoothies. You can get varieties that are sweet or tart, and anything in between.

Gooseberries are tough. They can handle sun and wind, and they're pretty drought tolerant once they're established. So they should be great for Wyoming Zone 5.

Gooseberries are relatively cheap to buy, and they propagate easily. I wouldn't necessarily recommend getting a potted gooseberry, but I would recommend buying a nice bare root Gooseberry plant from someone like Burnt Ridge Nursery. And once those plants are established, you can take cuttings and plant Gooseberry plants all over your property

I must admit the spines seem to be sharper the better tasting gooseberry you have -it does come in a wide range of colours - green white yellow and red .
I' m trying josta berry this year
It's a black currant gooseberry cross
David

Are you consuming, or selling. Where are you. Teaberry. High cranberries. Yes, tomatoes are berries, ground cherries. Mull tree. Ribes in general, but chooks love elder. Goumi, but be careful it can be invasive. Paw paw is technically a berry, kinda. Choke. Dew berry. Barberry

chad Christopher wrote:Are you consuming, or selling. Where are you. Teaberry. High cranberries. Yes, tomatoes are berries, ground cherries. Mull tree. Ribes in general, but chooks love elder. Goumi, but be careful it can be invasive. Paw paw is technically a berry, kinda. Choke. Dew berry. Barberry

Just looking for opinions so I can prioritize. The only berries I've ever eaten are strawberry, blueberry and raspberry. So I want to know what people like eating so I can look into them first. If you can grow snowberry just fine but it doesn't taste great, well I'd put that at the bottom of the list of stuff for me to buy.

Black currents have a very strong taste that many people in the US are not used to. Red and white ones are more mild, but also less cold and deer-resistant.
Look at what others grow in your area. For me, it's raspberries. The climate is perfect for them, as well as PH - so they grow really well, which is a huge advantage.

It sounds like you want something that comes up and produces quickly with little to no effort, can handle weeds and nibblers and feed the birds; Nanking Cherry is at the top of that list for our similar climates. Then currants, gooseberries, rasberries and blackberries are all quick too grow shrubs that I would not want to be without. My all time favorite is one that I don't have producing yet, only fond memories of another tree; a mulberry.

Goumi, goji, and seabuckthorn

invasive edibles ...oh no!

I love lots of different berries, but I think my favorite flavor-wise has got to be strawberries, though thimbleberries come in a close second, with blueberries and raspberries right on their heels.

Blackberries! Although I also love the other basics - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. And an honorable mention to the PNW salmonberries for good memories foraging in the woods as a kid.

I also love currants, the red ones specifically, and haven't had a gooseberry in ages so I can't really speak to those. Am also growing hardy kiwi, but can't speak to that yet since I haven't had a harvest.

Bethany Dutch wrote:Blackberries! Although I also love the other basics - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. And an honorable mention to the PNW salmonberries for good memories foraging in the woods as a kid.

I also love currants, the red ones specifically, and haven't had a gooseberry in ages so I can't really speak to those. Am also growing hardy kiwi, but can't speak to that yet since I haven't had a harvest.

I have good memories of the salmonberries, too, but even more of picking red huckleberries. I still really enjoy them (though not the salmonberries as much--it's a good thing the salmonberris are the first to ripen, because we're all so berry-deprived at that time that they taste delicious). I just wish the red huckleberries are bigger because they take soooo long to pick a good amount of them!

Bill Bradbury wrote:It sounds like you want something that comes up and produces quickly with little to no effort, can handle weeds and nibblers and feed the birds; Nanking Cherry is at the top of that list for our similar climates. Then currants, gooseberries, rasberries and blackberries are all quick too grow shrubs that I would not want to be without. My all time favorite is one that I don't have producing yet, only fond memories of another tree; a mulberry.

Not really. I have raspberries and blackberries already. I have goji, honeyberry, aronia berry and cranberry coming this spring. I think I want elderberry but then I have no idea. So I wanted to see what people liked.

Don't forget Saskatoon as well, AKA Juneberry or Serviceberry (amelanchier alnifolia). Delicious.

elle sagenev wrote:So I want to know what people like eating so I can look into them first. If you can grow snowberry just fine but it doesn't taste great, well I'd put that at the bottom of the list of stuff for me to buy.

I wouldn't eat snowberry and I'm into eating whatever I can. It is a slight deliriant and can cause upset stomach.

Snowberry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphoricarpos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphoricarpos_albus

Totally useful. Totally not food.

I am kinda in the same boat... I have been looking at honeyberries for their hardiness and early spring production. I think mixing those with blueberries and raspberries would give you nice spread out productions for spring summer and fall... although I have never tasted a honeyberry. I hear they are like wild blueberries... anyone tasted them?

Also, one my personal favorites and the one that I'm doing the most to propagate on my property: Trailing blackcap raspberry. So delicious. Thorns are mild. They run and creep over everything, and they bear tons of fruit.

I was talking specifically about this:

http://depts.washington.edu/propplnt/Plants/RUUR.htm

But I grow and like this as well:

http://depts.washington.edu/propplnt/Plants/Blackcap_raspberry.htm

Landon Sunrich wrote:

elle sagenev wrote:So I want to know what people like eating so I can look into them first. If you can grow snowberry just fine but it doesn't taste great, well I'd put that at the bottom of the list of stuff for me to buy.

I wouldn't eat snowberry and I'm into eating whatever I can. It is a slight deliriant and can cause upset stomach.

I did not know that. See, good to know!

Himalayan blackberries, wild strawberries, red and white currants, elderberries and mulberries.

Ryan Skinner wrote:I am kinda in the same boat... I have been looking at honeyberries for their hardiness and early spring production. I think mixing those with blueberries and raspberries would give you nice spread out productions for spring summer and fall... although I have never tasted a honeyberry. I hear they are like wild blueberries... anyone tasted them?

Ryan- I have Honeyberry bushes and the fruit is tasty. I would a agree with the taste of wild blueberry. My Honeyberry bushes bloom earlier than any of the other plant I have, and the flowers tend to stand late spring frosts better than other plants. I like my Honeyberries but they seem to be shy bearing. I'm not sure if that's common or not.

I like the ones that grow with little care
I have found that many times one learns to appreciate the flavors of berries as they get use to eating them.
Some times it takes a little effort to learn how to properly prepare a berry I am not familiar with.
However, I have yet to find one that I could not make some nice out of. With the exception of soap berry.

If anyone has some female KIWI let me know. I was given two males meader two years ago and they are growing great just no fruit.

Watermelons are the largest berries. Most people can barely finish one.

Both Chuck and Halle are pretty big as well.

Dale Hodgins wrote:Watermelons are the largest berries. Most people can barely finish one.

Both Chuck and Halle are pretty big as well.

Ah well I can't grow watermelon. lol

Elle: Raspberries! There are so many varied cultivars, varied bearing times, many colours... and they spread so easily. None of this 'take cuttings' business, just leave them alone, and when too many new canes come up, divide and replant where you want more! Not prone to sprawling all over everything and trying to thorn you to death come picking time, either. What could be better? Oh, and delicious.

Ground cherries, particularly the Aunt Molly cultivar, are great; but I can't love an annual nearly as much as a perennial, or a self-replacing biennial...

Some of the blackberry/raspberry crosses are really nice; Tayberry and Olallieberry are my favorites.

I'm hopeful that Chilean Guava will prove as wonderful as I've been told; planted last year, should get some berries this fall if the damn critters don't get em before they ripen, again. Anyone have these?


Ryan; we planted a few haskap(honeyberries) on my parents property, near Victoria BC. Thus far not impressed. 6 plants, 3 years old; the 2x Berry Blue are 3-4ft feet high, the 2x Tundra and 2x Borealis are maybe a third that size. It's been a warm winter, and they're starting to flower right now.

Very minimal fruit last year, and the handful of berries I did get were pretty damn tart; I'd describe them as like a very untasty blueberry! All 6 had their leaves go brown and drop well ahead of when I would expect, despite being watered religiously.

A farm I was on last summer(Cowichan valley, Vancouver Island) had some as well; IIRC, these were russian descended 'Blue XXXX' cultivars, also 3 years old. Similar fruit, very small amount, unexciting and tart, and similar early leaf loss. These didn't get nearly the amount of water that the above did.

Fingers crossed for better results this year!