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  • From: Betty Mayfield <bmayfield@opusnet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Marionberry
  • Date: Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:24:57 -0700


Sorry to disagree with you, Lon, but I have found Marionberries rather "blah."  I think that by far the tastiest is the Cascade, sold by Raintree Nursery at Morton, Washington. Their catalog says:

"Thought to be a cross between Loganberry and wild Cascade trailing blackberry (which it will pollinate), this berry was a very popular backyard crop 40 years ago, but it has long since been unavailable. Many still ask for it, because of an unmatched wild trailing blackberry flavor, a much larger size and higher productivity. Fruit ripens in July. USDA Zones 7-9. 4 inch pots."

It is not commercial because it is very delicate. When picking a quart for a pie, the weight of the berries will start to crush the juice out of the bottom layer in the container. It tastes like the little wild berry, but yields much more juice.  In fact, I bake it in little individual pie dishes and serve each with a spoon as well as a fork to catch every drop of juice!

Betty Mayfield
northwest Oregon

At 05:50 AM 4/2/2009, Scott Smith wrote:
I can vouch for the 7F limit, I tried to grow them but found I needed to take them down and cover them in my Maryland climate (gets down to about 0F here most winters) or they would die back.  I got hooked on Marionberries on trips to Oregon, they are the best tasting blackberries I have found.  There are several newer varieties which are supposedly "almost as tasty" as the Marion which are a bit more hardy and I am testing them now.  They include Metolius, Black Pearl, Orus 1843-3, and Siskiyou.  I hope at least one of them is regularly hardy in my climate and tasty as well.

Scott




------------



Marion  is a variety of trailing blackberry produced at Oregon
State U. 
from a cross of Chehalem x Olallie.  It was introduced in
1956.  
Chehalem has a local species, Rubus ursinus, as a parent that gives it 
a particular rich, aromatic flavor.  The variety is mainly
grown  in 
the Willamette Valley for pies and preserves and is highly prized for 
them.  The berries are quite large, but with unusually small
seeds.  
The vines suffer damage at 7 F above zero, so they can't be grown many 
areas without winter protection.   Marion is the standard
against which 
all other berries are compared in this area of Oregon.



-Lon
Rombough
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