Who Grows Berries/Fruit

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Kya D

Active Member
I have
bush cherries
gold currants
black currants
4 different grape vines
I would love to get a gooseberry bush cuz my Grandma had one when I was growing up and they hold alot of memories
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
You are welcome, Miss Gloria. I haven't tried it myself yet, but Woodstock told me that conserve went very well on pork chops. It doesn't take much to really enhance that flavor. I have some chops I'm going to try it on here in the next few weeks. I have made a raisin sauce that I used on pork roast and that helped take care of a lot of that dryness.
 

Mainegal

Super Moderator
Staff member
I have baked pork chops in fat free italian dressing, some garlic, soy sauce and worcestershre sauce and they come out nice and moist. I had them once while I was in FL visiting my cousins and now I make them that way alot. I make sure I cut all the fat off them too.
What is blueberry conserve Randy?
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
I had to look that up myself, Laurie. A conserve is a fruit preserved in sugar that will normally have more than one fruit in it. The blueberry conserve has blueberries as a main ingredient, but also has lemon and orange in it along with some zesting of each. The recipe is in that Ball Blue Book you have.
 

Wombat

Active Member
One annoying thing about living in a sub tropical climate is my inability to grow very many berries. I do grow strawberries, boysenberries, blueberries, cape gooseberries and I have a mulberry tree. I also love raspberries, blackberries and just about every berry you can think of....definitely in the wrong zone lol. I am going to try keriberries next year....
 

Kya D

Active Member
I forgot to add my trees
peach trees
apricot trees
italian plum trees
chokecherry bushes
 

plantlover

New Member
Oh Dawn! Are those Italian plums you have the prune plums? My mother loves those. Every fall, she goes on a search to find them in one of the higher end grocery stores. She makes a kind of tart/pie with them. The recipe is quite old. I think it was passed down from an old family friend. The crust is made from dry curd cottage cheese and butter. There's probably a small amount of flour in it.

I wish I had some blueberries growing. I suppose I could grow them in containers. They're supposed to be loaded with antioxidants. When I saw a five pound bag in the freezer section of the grocery store the other day and realized it was priced at $18, I decided I needed to figure out how I could grow my own.

Has anyone ever tasted or grown Ambrosia apples? I only recently discovered them. They are the most amazing and beautiful apples. They taste fabulous too. They are nice and crunchy. I know nothing about this kind of apple, but am very curious......so if anyone has any knowledge, I'd love to hear more.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
I think mulberries would grow here, yet I haven't seen one. Our climate is much like the climate in Japan and there they cultivate the mulberry for feeding silkworms, or at least they did before all the synthetic fabrics were invented. John, the birds here make sure there are plenty of berry vines scattered all over the country to the point they are a pestilence. But I still gather the berries and use them and only mutter a little bit over all the vines.
 

plantlover

New Member
Randy, the Japanese also cultivate the mulberry for paper making. I'm not sure whether Kozo is a separate variety or whether they use one type of mulberry for multiple purposes. The fibers are quite long, and to make the paper, they have to be broken down. When I was in graduate school, I took a course in paper making. Japanese paper making was a big part of it. There is no machinery involved in that process, and the fibers are broken down as they are beaten with a mallet. It's the most labor intensive and tedious work I've ever had to do. For me, it was also the most painful because it just makes tendonitis or carpal tunnel so much worse.

I love those tiny wild blueberries. My brother often harvests them when he goes up to Nova Scotia during the summer. I suspect it may be too warm here to grow blueberries. I sure would like to be able to grow them, though.
 

Wombat

Active Member
Randy the birds here are also very good at plant cultivation. I haven't planted a passionfruit vine at my place ever but I have 11 growing down the back of my block. The same goes for mulberries they're always comming up in the lawn as seedlings. Occasionally I save them and put them in pots, as they're a lot easier to control size wise in containers, the trees if left in the ground are eeeenormous lol.
Planty I've harvested those tiny blueberries in my travels in the US, they're very sweet and make a great snack when travelling in the car. I think you may also be able to grow blueberries as long as you plant the "warm climate" types and give them a little afternoon shade. It works for me in my hot and humid climate although we don't get (thank goodness lol) the searing heat of your summer...maybe check with your local nursery to see what varieties, if any will survive your particular zone.:)
 

Kya D

Active Member
Ms Susan you are right. My Mom use to call then Italian prunes. They look blue on the tree but when you rub the blue off they turn almost black purple. The flesh is green and they are long instead of round.
These trees do really well here. We had a few trees when I was a kid and they are a fav of mine.
 

plantlover

New Member
Holy cow! Thanks, Dawn! That information is great! If you ever get the chance to taste an Ambrosia apple, seize the opportunity! It's my all time favorite apple now! It's beautiful looking and heavenly delicious.

I'll have to get the recipe for that pie/tart that my mother makes with those Italian plums. They are really yummy when they are cooked!!!!!!!!!

Wombat, you are right....I could look for a variety that would withstand the heat.....Forget the nursery. I can go looking on the website for Texas A&M University. They are the big Aggie school around here, and they have a wealth of horticultural and gardening resources.
 

Roe

New Member
I planted a Mulberry tree about 6yrs ago. It fills out with leaves but I still don't see any berries on it. I keep hoping maybe this year..
I also have 2 peach trees, last summer the fruit on it was wonderful.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
We can grow peaches here, but they are a lot of work. Our climate is so moist that we have a terrible problem with peach leaf curl. I have had two peach trees here and given up on both of them. One of them was supposed to be resistant to the peach leaf curl fungus, but it still eventually killed the tree.

Susan, your Texas A & M is on the same par as our Oregon State University down south of us here. Our university though does not fund the research in agriculture though. It is funded totally by Oregon agricultural people. I didn't know that until my friend in the senate told me that. He was on the agricultural committee.
 

Flower4Yeshua

Super Moderator & vegemm
Staff member
We can grow peaches here, but they are a lot of work. Our climate is so moist that we have a terrible problem with peach leaf curl. I have had two peach trees here and given up on both of them. One of them was supposed to be resistant to the peach leaf curl fungus, but it still eventually killed the tree.

We where going to put i apeach tree but after a bit of research found it would be way to much work..We had raseberries, blackberries and a wierd little berry at the old place...none really take a lot of work...the blackberries where the hymila's and were taking over the back of the pasture...so I will pas son having them here...but do plan on getting raseberry plants and blueberry bushes put in this year...
 

Dor

Active Member
My County Master Gardeners is having the yearly fruit sale on Feb 14. I thought it was later in the month but I am so glad I decided to check the site this morning. I really would like to get a Meyer, Blackberry and Blueberry, and a Fig tree. I have to cut down and buy the two I want the most. Have to keep my budget in mind. Plantlover the site. Your weather is a lot like mind and you should be able to grow this Blueberry. I would love to have a peach, pear, and pecan tree but I don't know if I have enough room. Pecan trees get so large. I had oa pdcan and a pear at one time from my mother but they both died. Maybe because at that time I wasn't conditioning the clay soil as I do now.

http://www.fbmg.com/CommunityEducation/FruitSales/Fruit2009/FruitVarieties09.htm
 

Mainegal

Super Moderator
Staff member
I had to look that up myself, Laurie. A conserve is a fruit preserved in sugar that will normally have more than one fruit in it. The blueberry conserve has blueberries as a main ingredient, but also has lemon and orange in it along with some zesting of each. The recipe is in that Ball Blue Book you have.

Thanks Randy for the info. I had never heard of it until some ppl on said they rec'd some from you, so was wondering what it was. Will have to look at my book. Thanks my friend.
I want to put in a berry patch here. I love them all. I wonder if the big blueberries will grow here.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
The blueberries need a lot of water and of course, we get that here. But both my farmer friends have the irrigation in place when Mother Nature doesn't provide sufficiently. The conserve I made was an experiment and a successful one. But I didn't make much and I waited until I had only one jar left to open one for use here. I still have plenty of blueberries in the freezer though. I saw Robin Miller's show on the food channel a few days back though and she had a blueberry cobbler that I really like the looks of. I'm going to try it here pretty soon.
 


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