Honeyberries

Honeyberries, or haskaps, are known as the “fruit of long life.” They have higher levels of antioxidants than blueberries, elderberries or aronia berries. They have been grown in Siberia and northern Japan for centuries, but are relatively new to North America. They are packed with flavor, hardy to USDA Zone 3, and ripen before strawberries. Blue Fruit Farm has been growing honeyberries for about 8 years. Jim Riddle will share his experiences and observations, good and bad, about this exciting fruit.

Presented by: Jim Riddle, Blue Fruit Farm

For more than 35 years, Jim Riddle has been an organic farmer, gardener, inspector, educator, policy analyst, author, speaker and avid organic eater. Jim was founding chair of the Winona Farmers Market Association and the International Organic Inspectors Association, (IOIA), and co-author of the International Organic Inspection Manual. Jim served as chair of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Organic Advisory Task Force and was instrumental in passage of Minnesota’s landmark organic certification cost-share program, which now is a Farm Bill program that provides partial reimbursement for organic certification costs nationwide. Jim worked for the University of Minnesota as Organic Outreach Coordinator and as Organic Research Grants Coordinator for Ceres Trust. Jim co-owns and operates Blue Fruit Farm, where he and his wife grow blueberries, black currants, elderberries, aronia berries, honeyberries and more.

Hosted by UW-Madison Extension & University of Minnesota Extension as part of our Alternative Berry Production Systems Webinar series

[lwjenson]

Thank you so much for this presentation and information! I am planting honeyberries in my backyard and this information is really helpful!

[alembiqueONE]

1:06:25 I’m a home grower but I had the same problem this year, we had unusually dry and hot may this year, but I didn’t realize it until I started harvesting berries in early june, some of the berries didn’t get to the full size, some stayed small and green, a lot of leaves inside the bush were also underdeveloped and dry. and the taste of the berries that were able to mature was mostly very tart and sometimes even bitter, even though I let them mature 2-3 weeks after they turned blue.
definitely learned my lesson and installed drip irrigation system, will make sure to use it next year, and probably bird netting too.