Plump Plants

What’s the most delicious fruit flavour combination you can imagine? Is it kiwi-peach? Watermelon-grape? Cherry-mango? How about banana-prune? Ding ding ding! We have a winner! It might sound weird, but the last combo is actually super tasty, AND it’s found in a fruit that’s native to northern climates: the nannyberry. DESCRIPTION You’ll be forgiven if this is a new one—outside of landscape gardening and foraging circles it’s not very well known. I’d never heard of them until I was taking a walk with my sister-in-law/forager extraordinaire a few winters ago. I would have walked right by the shrivelled looking fruits, but...

Growing plants that are potentially lethal is kind of exciting. It’s like, “Don’t cross me! I could poison you with my ancient druid wisdom!” That’s how I feel about my elderberry bushes.  That being said, it would be pretty hard to secretly get someone to eat the eight or so pounds of elderberries required to take out an adult human. I’d have to settle for inducing an episode of “gastric distress”.  Just kidding!  The beneficial qualities of the elderberry (Sambucus) are equally wondrous.  In nature, elderberry bushes grow along the edge of woodlands, streams, and ditches. They like well-drained moist...

My first introduction to the persimmon was as a teacher in South Korea. All of a sudden one day my local grocery store was full of gift boxes featuring what looked like hard orange tomatoes.  What could they be?  I asked my coworkers what was going on, and found out that it was persimmon season. The fruit is a popular gift during the national holiday, Chuseok, hence the elaborate gift wrapping. The persimmon fruit is technically a berry, and grows on a small-ish tree. The shape and size differs from variety to variety and a persimmon can be round and...

Can you think of a major city named after a fruit? Bananaville? Melontown?  How about Saskatoon?  That’s right—the Paris of the prairies is named for the Saskatoon berry, which comes from the plant’s Cree name, “misâskwatômina.” It’s a pretty big accomplishment for a pretty small berry. DESCRIPTION Sitting in my Saskatoon berry patch, I feel transported to the windswept plains of the prairies. The small berries are like purple jewels in a landscape where native fruit is scarce.  I’m not the only animal that likes to eat Saskatoon berries (Amelanchier alnifolia)—they’re attractive to smaller critters like squirrels and chipmunks, birds,...

Sea buckthorn shouldn’t be the northern edible darling that it is. It’s got huge thorns. The berries are so tart they’re almost inedible. It’s impossible to harvest other than painstakingly by hand (although there’s a trick I’ll get into later). It suckers like crazy and can overwhelm other plants if you’re not careful.   And yet, it’s all over permaculture, natural health, and northern growing blogs and websites. What gives? It’s no accident that sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) has the word THORN in it. The plant is technically a shrub, but it can grow to tree-like heights of 25 feet plus. The...