North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kim Maser" <prairiegrapes@gmail.com>]

Hi Melissa; Try this website

 

http://dnagardens.com/

Cheers

 

Kim Maser - Canadian sources (Nafex)

On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 4:43 PM, Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com> wrote:

I've been enjoying the lively discussions of obscure
fruit on this list. My husband and I just bought a
house with a big yard, and we're eager to rip up the
useless lawn and plant more interesting plants next
spring. You're all giving us lots of great ideas.

Crabapples have been discussed recently by people who
enjoy eating them fresh. I'd never considered any sort
of apple for our garden, since the usual apple
varieties can't be grown organically in this area
(central NY, zone 5), and I don't want to have to
bother with spraying. How do these crabs for fresh
eating do against pests? Are they more resistant than
the usual apples?

Assuming these crabs are more resistant to pests, do
they really taste good? I realize that's a very
subjective question, of course, so I'm going to
calibrate my tastes for you all with a familiar apple.
My favorite apple of the commonly available varieties
is 'Granny Smith' because that's the crunchiest and
most flavorful. (I like 'Gold Rush" even better, but
that's more obscure.) Are there crabapples with a
crunch and taste sort of like that?

But anyway, I'm mostly thinking of planting species
that are so obscure, the local pests hopefully won't
know what to do with them. Haskaps, Lonicera
caerulea,sound particularly intriguing. This is a blue
berry that ripens two weeks before strawberries, and
is reputedly tasty eaten fresh, like blueberries.
Here's more info about them:
http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/plantsci/dom_fruit/articles/growing_haskap_mar2008.pdf
The species has various other names, like blue
honeysuckle and honeyberries, but the new varieties
that have just been developed by the University of
Saskatchewan that are supposedly so much tastier than
the earlier varieties, the breeders want to distance
themselves completely from the earlier kinds by using
a different name. Haskap is a traditional name for
this berry in Japan. Here are the new varieties:
http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/plantsci/dom_fruit/articles/new_varieties.pdf
The trouble is, these varieties seem to be available
only in Canada, and I can't find a Canadian nursery
that can ship plants to the US. Is there any way I can
buy these plants?

Melissa
Central NY, zone 5





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