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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] crabapples, haskaps, sea buckthorn, currants

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  • From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] crabapples, haskaps, sea buckthorn, currants
  • Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 12:38:25 -0700 (PDT)

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I realize my first
email made it seem like I want to plant only the most
obscure plants. I'm aware that obscure plants can have
their problems too. I planted some seeds from a horned
melon a few years ago, and the plants thrived until
the cucumber beetles discovered them. They promptly
ate the plants to the ground as if they were the most
delicious thing they'd ever tasted, much preferring
them to my cucumbers.

Actually, I'll be planting whatever is tastiest and
easiest to grow. I'd dismissed apples earlier, not
because they were common per se, but because the many
apple trees all around here all seem to suffer from
various pests unless heavily sprayed. Quite a lot of
people here have neglected apple trees in their
gardens, that drop apples onto the sidewalks every
fall. These apples often have very tasty bits in
between the insect tracks, but they are mostly insect
tracks. It's clear that the local populations of apple
pests are deeply entrenched and are thriving, so I
don't want to get involved in this battle.

>You might want to contact organic growers (commercial
or home-use) in your area.

Although this area is blessed with many organic
farmers, I don't think anyone is growing apples
organically here. I'm sure if it could be done,
someone here would be doing it.

The land this housing development is on was a pear
orchard 40 years ago, and there are a few very old
trees left, none on our property unfortunately. Our
next-door-neighbor, upon hearing of our plans to plant
fruit, told us that there's an old pear tree in his
backyard that surprises him every year by suddenly
dropping much more fruit than his family can eat, so
it rots on the ground. (Why this should be a surprise
to him every year I don't know.) So pears do well
here, but I might not bother planting one, as I could
just trade with my neighbor. Or steal fruit off his
tree, as I'm sure he wouldn't notice. I haven't seen
these fruit, so I don't know how insect-ridden they
are.

In the common-and-good category, I've already planted
strawberries. Even though I planted them in the middle
of summer when we moved in, they did fine, and are
spreading. They even gave us a few berries already (I
planted 'Mara de Bois' which is an everbearer, but is
supposed to yield most of its berries in June.) I can
tell I'll have to get some bird netting for these for
next June, since there's lots of wildlife around here.

Raspberries are on our list already. I've grown these
before, and the only difficulty seemed to be stopping
them from taking over the garden. I might plant them
behind some sort of barrier in the soil this time.
What are the tastiest varieties? We like flavors that
are very distinctive, like a nice strong raspberry
fragrance, and sweetness balanced by nice tartness.
There are wild black raspberries in the backyard
already, but I've eaten tastier cultivated ones.

Blueberries are also on the definite list. I'm having
trouble choosing varieties since there seem to be a
lot of good ones, but I guess I'll just order ones
that ripen over a long period.

Yes, I see that One Green World has a nice selection
of haskaps/honeyberries, so I'll probably order from
them. Maybe I should get a few plants each of the
early and late blooming kinds, to see which does
better here. I'd still like the latest and greatest,
fresh-from-the-breeder varieties, though, and it looks
like the only serious breeding program on this
continent is in Canada. If you believe the hype, these
new varieties taste much better than the old ones.
There are rumors of another breeding program in
Oregon, but it doesn't seem to have released any new
varieties. DNA Gardens is one of the Canadian
nurseries I contacted. I forget, they either were one
of the ones that didn't get back to me, or they did
get back to me and said that they can't ship to the
US.

Also in the obscure category, this new neighborhood of
mine has several interesting grocery stores, so I just
bought a carton of sea buckthorn nectar (composed of
water, sea buckthorn pulp, and sugar.) This was
exciting, since I'd previously seen sea buckthorn for
sale only in garden catalogs. The cashier tried to
warn me away from buying it, since he said that a lot
of people don't like the taste, but it is supposed to
be good for you. I bought it anyway. My husband and I,
at least, found it delicious, with a very distinctive
flavor. We were trying to figure out what it reminded
us of. Cranberries? Apricots? Pineapple? I finally
figured out that it tasted almost exactly like
carambola, (starfruit) and he agreed. If it had been
labeled carambola juice we would have believed it,
except it looked more like thick orange juice. I'm
trying not to plant too many plants that require a lot
of processing before eating, but this once has such a
good and distinctive flavor after processing it might
be worth growing.

I also bought a carton of black currant drink at the
same store, since I'd never tried black currants
before either. I'd heard they have a weird taste that
most Americans don't like. This drink definitely had a
distinctive taste, but my husband and I disagreed
about what it reminded us of. I said Kool-Aid, and he
said Jello. Maybe it was just this particular brand.
I'd hate to think of an actual fruit tasting like
that. I might try different brands of black currant
products from this store to try to figure out if the
fruit really does taste like that.

I have been thinking of putting in some sort of
currants and/or gooseberries, since I hear some
varieties are tasty fresh, but I have very little
experience with them. I've heard mixed reports about
clove currants. The fragrant flowers sound like a
definite advantage over the other currants. There
apparently is just one named variety, Crandall, but
variable and inferior seedlings of this have been sold
for years as if they were the true Crandall, so I
obviously don't want one of those. Also, from what
I've looked up about the species, it's not
self-fertile, but needs another variety to pollinate
it, or it just puts out a few small, pathetic berries.
(If the seedlings that are mislabeled 'Crandall' are
the offspring of this sad inbreeding, no wonder the
reviews are so mixed.) So, if i want to grow this, I
have to find not one but two different varieties,
which will be very tricky since I can't even be sure
of the identity of the one named variety. I'm actually
considering asking for some cuttings from the USDA ARS
National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, OR,
since then at least I could be sure of what I'm
getting. They have so many accessions of this species,
though, I wouldn't know what to ask for. It would be
nice if some nursery were selling two actual known
good varieties that are compatible for pollination.

I wish muscadines were hardy here. I bought some once,
and they were delicious. I will be planting grapes, as
soon as we figure out the best place to put a trellis
that we can guard from the deer. I have a funny story
about the grape variety 'Marquis" if anyone wants to
hear it, but this email is too long already.

Melissa







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