|
GARDENER'S
READING ROOM
Edibles
Sweet
& Sour Additions to Your Garden
Anyone
for a little gooseberry fool or a jostaberry tart? How about
some delicious currant jelly? For most of us the answers to
these questions would be, “Too tart…too hard to
find and what’s a jostaberry anyway?”
These
wonderful fruits, popular in Europe and British Columbia,
are a great addition to any Northwest garden. In fact, they
seem to be ideally suited to the Northwest climate, preferring
morning sun, afternoon shade, cool summers, and winter chill.
They like compost-rich soil and a fertilizer lower in nitrogen
than potassium. The bushes are deciduous, flower in the spring,
and provide the owner with a bounty of tasty berries in the
summer.
 The
gooseberry
is a thorny bush, 3 feet high and up to 6 feet wide, with
an average yield of up to ten pounds of fruit per bush. Many
of the newer varieties are sweeter, mildew resistant and less
thorny. Sky Nursery carries three different varieties: Captivator,
Oregon Champion,
and Poorman.
Currants
grow in beautiful clusters on a compact plant that grows to
about 4-5 feet. They can be used to form an edible hedge or
just space around your garden. The sweet-tart berries are
high in vitamin C and are wonderful in salads, either fresh
or dried. They are also excellent for making syrups, juices,
and jellies. Your local bird population will gleefully enjoy
what you can’t eat. Sky carries a good selection of
red, white, and black currants.
 The
Jostaberry
is a cross between a black currant and a gooseberry. Its berries
are high in vitamin C; the bush has a vigorous growth habit,
is thornless, and is resistant to powdery mildew like the
black currant. The Jostaberry
resembles the gooseberry with a hint of currant flavor and
makes a fantastic jam.
Finally,
Sky is carrying more unusual bushes grown for both their ornamental
qualities and their tart berries. The first, of course, is
roses: rugosa roses
form large, edible hips (high in Vitamin C) that make excellent
conserves or jam. Lingonberry
is a wonderful groundcover plant, you betcha! Sea
Buckthorn, almost unknown in the U.S., is
one of the most widely-grown, productive berries in the world.
It has a narrow, upright habit and silvery green leaves.
The
orange berries are usually juiced, tasting like an orange-passionfuit
mix. Aronia juice
is now commercially available; the Aronia bush
has handsome dark green foliage, white flowers in spring,
red fall color, and large crops of blue-black, tart, juicy
berries. Goumi and Autumn Olive,
both Eleagnus species, have silvery foliage, fragrant white
flowers, and tasty red fruit rather like a tart cherry.
And
don’t forget our native “sweet & sours”
- Oregon Grape, Red Huckleberry,
and Evergreen Huckleberry make
excellent garden ornamentals. Add some sweet and sour
berries to your garden - and your plate!
By Deb Boyer
Skylights Spring 2005, Vol 19, No. 1
Other
articles on edibles
|
