North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>]

Title: Message

Full sun, water when dry, and no need to stake.  Fruit is about 3/8 to 1/2 inch in diameter.  Pick when the berries turn from glossy to dullish purple for best flavor.

 

What I did grow up eating in western Kansas was an edible form of black nightshade (S. nigrum) that ethnic Germans brought from the Volga River region of Russia.

 

I believe all these nightshades have a somewhat acrid flavor, but those of us who grew up eating them find them delicious nonetheless.  We don't even attempt to compare them with blueberries or other fruits; they are what they are (and pretty darn good if you live where one of the few fruits that do well). -- Sam Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn.

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of mIEKAL aND
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 1:51 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Garden Huckleberry

Any tricks to growing Wonderberry?  I'm growing it for the first time & just about to put them in the ground...  How tall do they get, do they need support, what size are the fruit?

~mIEKAL

On May 24, 2007, at 1:45 PM, Lon J. Rombough wrote:

I have some Solanum burbankii, the Wonderberry, that is pleasantly sweet to eat fresh, but it's messy to handle because the berries are soft and juice a lot when picked.   It self-seeds quite a bit and the seedlings regularly come up early and they take a surprising amount of frost.  I have a lot of them already over 6 inches tall.  They would be larger if they weren't crowded.

-Lon