North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Sarah Kehler Ewing <skkewing@yahoo.com>]

> Hey Sarah,
> 
> There's only one way you can prove to me that this
> supposed "Canada" place actually exists: smuggle
> me
> some of those intriguing new haskap varieties, and
> those dwarf cherries too. The only nurseries I've
> found selling them are in Canada, and don't ship to
> the US. Sure. This is looking more and more
> suspicious.
> 
> Melissa

Ha, Ha,

You have a great sense of humour!

But sorry, but I'm waiting for my children to get a little older before I 
risk going to jail for smuggling illegal plant materials across the border... 
and I'm sure you are very nice and all, but when I get around to breaking 
that law: I'm going to be smuggling something off my long list of 'trees 
wanted' up this way!

>Have you tried out the new honeyberry varieties (that have not yet become
>available south of the border) yet?  
>
>Scott Hills


The honeyberries are excellent.  I still need to acquire the newest releases, 
but the others are great and ridiculously hardy.  I've made pie out of them 
and am looking forward to the day I have enough to make jam.  The U. of S. 
has had great sucess with producing new cultivars due to their very clever 
partnership plan with local farmers.  Their method of evaluating thousands of 
fruit trees/bushes (apples, haskaps, cherries, and hazelnuts) has the farmers 
planting, looking after, and helping evaluate fifty to a hundred seedlings, 
with a non-propagating contract unfortunately for me!  There is also 
researcher in Oregon working on them and he is the one who actually coined 
and patented the term "honeyberry" which is partly why Canada is moving 
towards the term "haskaps".  The change also has something to do with the 
origins of the parent material: Russia vs Japan (DNA Gardens has some info).

DNA Gardens, Windmill Point Farms, T and T Seeds, Dominion, etc. all carry 
honeyberries in Canada.  I know Park Seeds (U.S.) have carried them in the 
past and I even have one that they sold so I'm not convinced that the 
varieties bred up here wouldn't do well in warmer climates.

If you are desperate to try them, I could send either of you some honeyberry 
seeds: I saved a bunch of seeds from my largest fruit off of my 9 different 
kinds and I'm not going to plant all of them this spring.  My (32) cherries 
haven't produced very much fruit/seed yet, but I know they also grow well 
from seed as one of our local nurseries (Saskatoon Farm) sells U. of S. 
cherry seedling trees.

I want to recommend an excellent cherry pitter (and that's 'cherry stoner' 
for American readers, in Canada 'stoner' means something entirely different!) 
to fellow NAFEXers: there are full pictures and sales at www.sausagemaker.com 
for U.S. customers and Berry Hill Ltd. for Canadian purchasers.  I can use it 
to comfortably pit a gallon in 10 minutes. I have the original model which 
pits Evan's cherries and the U. of S. cherries like a dream, however it did 
not like the largest Bing's that I bought in the grocery store. I understand 
that they have made some modifications to enable it to pit the larger 
cherries (as well as some other modifications to make it work better) so the 
newer model may not work as well on the smaller pits of the Canadian 
Cherries.  Berry Hill Ltd. still had the original model last time I checked.

Sarah
Zone 3b
Edmonton, AB Canada