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Let's Share our Favorite Soft Fruits

By dave
June 7, 2014

Welcome to Soft Fruits week! Blackerries, raspberries, strawberries and more. What are you growing, and which cultivars do you think everyone else should grow?

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Jun 6, 2014 6:51 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Cindi
Wichita, Kansas (Zone 7a)
Charter ATP Member Beekeeper Garden Ideas: Master Level Roses Ponds Permaculture
Peonies Lilies Irises Dog Lover Daylilies Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Gooseberries! I love gooseberry pie yum yum!
And lingonberry crepes. Lingonberry jam. I'm about 50 miles south of a great lingonberry area. Next best place to get them is Ikea, in a jar! I tried growing cranberries, but the soil is too warm here.
I love currants, especially the clove scented ones. I don't cook with them, I just grow them for the blossoms in the spring.
The birds, bees and butterflies in my yard love the mulberries. I eat them too! The fish and turtles also enjoy snacking on them because the trees hang over the pond.
We also have elderberries growing around the pond, and the deer like those.
Last year my passion vines had fruit!
The one persimmon on my 2 persimmon trees ended up as coyote food.
We have pawpaws too. I hope I'm home the day they are edible! You have to catch them at just the right time, and if you do, they are super sweet and delicious.
I also grow grapes, blackberries, raspberries, marionberries, cherries, chinese quince, goji, kiwi. Most are shared with the wildlife. This year will be a great year for grapes. Some may actually make it into the house.
Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
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Jun 7, 2014 9:05 AM CST
Name: Deb
Planet Earth (Zone 8b)
Region: Pacific Northwest Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Garden Ideas: Master Level
I was just gifted three different varieties of currant starts - red, black, and a decorative one. I will probably plant them out this fall somewhere.

Gooseberries I am neutral to. I had a bush for years and found I rarely did anything with the fruit. I moved the shrub down our hill and am not sure if it is still alive or not.

I have a young mulberry inside my chicken yard, it produced one fruit last year and I'm hoping for a few more this year. It's still a small sapling and in a wire cage until it bulks up enough that the birds won't kill it.
I want to live in a world where the chicken can cross the road without its motives being questioned.
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Jun 7, 2014 3:44 PM CST
Name: Cinda
Indiana Zone 5b
Dances with Dirt
Beekeeper Bee Lover Overwinters Tender Plants Indoors Cottage Gardener Herbs Wild Plant Hunter
Hummingbirder Butterflies Birds Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Organic Gardener Vegetable Grower
My favorite is the one currently ripe for the picking . Smiling


Thumb of 2014-06-07/gardengus/0c6fdb mulberries
Thumb of 2014-06-07/gardengus/f6c338 Juneberries

I don't have currents , but hope to add them some day , they are great in scones.
I am substituting dried elderberries , they useable but not the same.


Thumb of 2014-06-07/gardengus/79e0f7 gooseberries (almost ripe)
Not really my favorite either.
..a balanced life is worth pursuit.
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Jun 12, 2014 7:13 PM CST
central Illinois
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Hosted a Not-A-Raffle-Raffle Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Plant Identifier Garden Ideas: Level 2
Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Photo Contest Winner: 2017
I grow Paw Paws, took them 7 years to bloom. Bloom is beautiful, like a red leather bell. The fruits are quite unique. Geo Washington and Thomas Jefferson liked them for desert. They're trying to colonize the area they're in from underground runner roots. I believe they serve as a food or environment to the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly. I've only seen the Zebra ST once here but it was under the Paw Paw trees.
The fruit's viability is short-lived which is the reason they're seldom if ever seen in the grocery store.
Nothing that's been done can ever be changed.
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Jun 14, 2014 10:02 AM CST
central Illinois
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Hosted a Not-A-Raffle-Raffle Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Plant Identifier Garden Ideas: Level 2
Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Photo Contest Winner: 2017
Alas, found pic of the Zebra ST
Thumb of 2014-06-14/jmorth/fd81db
Nothing that's been done can ever be changed.
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Jun 15, 2014 8:54 PM CST
Name: Cinda
Indiana Zone 5b
Dances with Dirt
Beekeeper Bee Lover Overwinters Tender Plants Indoors Cottage Gardener Herbs Wild Plant Hunter
Hummingbirder Butterflies Birds Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Organic Gardener Vegetable Grower
Oh iI have seen them in the woods and wondered what they were looking for , now I know Thank You!
..a balanced life is worth pursuit.
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Aug 5, 2015 5:31 PM CST
Name: Dnd
SE Michigan (Zone 6a)
Daylilies Dog Lover Houseplants Organic Gardener I helped beta test the first seed swap Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Garden Ideas: Level 2
I'm glad to hear that gooseberries aren't a huge hit because I had been really debating whether or not to get some. I ended up deciding not to when I found out that they (like grapes) are extremely poisonous to dogs. Sad So no grapes and no gooseberries. That's okay, though, there are plenty of other fruits to choose from.

@CindiKS - Do you grow lingonberries yourself? I had no idea IKEA sells lingonberry...well, anything! I'll have to check my nearest IKEA next time I stop in. I love lingonberry butter, too--IHOP is what got me hooked on it. I plan to add some lingonberries to my garden this year. As for your cherries, they don't happen to be Northstar, do they? I ordered two organic Northstar earlier this year and I'm curious how they taste. One of them appears to be dying (I'm not thrilled with the place I ordered them from) and I might replace it with a self-fertile sweet cherry tree instead, so if you have one of those, please feel free to make a recommendation!
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Aug 5, 2015 7:26 PM CST
Name: Cinda
Indiana Zone 5b
Dances with Dirt
Beekeeper Bee Lover Overwinters Tender Plants Indoors Cottage Gardener Herbs Wild Plant Hunter
Hummingbirder Butterflies Birds Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Organic Gardener Vegetable Grower
Oh yes
lingonberries on Swedish pancakes very traditional.

Yum Yum Smiling
..a balanced life is worth pursuit.
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Aug 11, 2015 1:27 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Cindi
Wichita, Kansas (Zone 7a)
Charter ATP Member Beekeeper Garden Ideas: Master Level Roses Ponds Permaculture
Peonies Lilies Irises Dog Lover Daylilies Celebrating Gardening: 2015
I've tried to grow Lingonberries, but my area is too alkaline, too hot, and too dry! Three strikes right there. I can't grow cranberries for the same reasons.
It's very easy to just buy lingonberries ready to go at the Ikea.
They are usually up in the front of the store by the fast food area.
I grow several kinds of cherry trees, sour, sweet, flowering, and wild. The sweet cherries are difficult to grow here, but I keep on planting them. The rain this summer has saved me!
A nursery by me has goji berries cheap this year, so I may be overrun with them in a a few years. Whistling
Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
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