North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

Hi,
I have the following honeyberries (haskaps; edible blue-honeysuckle):
                                
        

        
                
                        
Night Mist
                
                
                        
Blue Forest-(R) [cv. Magadan]
                
                
                        
Blue Pacific-(R) [cv. F-1-9-58]
                
                
                        
Borealis
                
                
                        
Tundra
                
        

I was never impressed with the only two of the above that I've tried: Blue 
Forest and Blue Pacific (but haven't tried the others yet); they taste like 
under-ripe blueberries at best with a little bit of an interesting musky 
over-tone.  A nursery which sold me Night Mist tells me that this variety is 
one of the varieties that tastes sweet and good for fresh-eating, unlike a 
majority of the older varieties; they also recommend Midnight Blue for the 
same reason.  I'm highly skeptical.  Some say that honeyberries are only good 
if you can't grow blueberries (i.e. in certain provinces of CA), etc.  Yet 
others claim they are fantastic.  American persimmon, in my opinion, is the 
greatest-flavored of all temperate edibles; but if I only knew them through 
some of the worst varieties or certain wild trees, I would never have known 
how great a good variety could be.  
So, for those who've tried the superior, newer varieties of honeyberries: are 
they as great as described?  If so, I'll add more bushes and know to expect 
that Night Mist and the others will be very different from the two 
aforementioned that I've tried (cf: Blue Forrest and Blue Pacific).  I will 
note that it's great to have these for the reason that they fruit, it seems, 
far earlier than any blueberry - a good substitute for the lack of 
blueberries.
Thanks,
Steve; NJ