tropit

Do you grow small crops of fruits or vegetables that you just can't find in the typical grocery store? If so, what are they and what do you make with them?

For example, I just picked a few handfuls of Goumi Berries this morning. You'll never find them in the store for a variety of reasons, but I have an upcoming crop on my Goumi bush, none the less, so what do I do with them? I found a recipe to make Goumi Vinegar that I'm going t use to make a salad dressing. I also grow Honey Berries, which are a lot like Blueberries, but you'll never see them in the grocery stores either, because they are hard to harvest. (They do make a lovely landscaping plant though.) They're done for the year now, but we made a few breakfasts of Honeyberry Pancakes. Delicious!

What do you have? Crabapples? Figs? Aronia Berries? ???

Onebyone

Gooseberries? Huckleberries? Mulberries? Haven't seen figs in stores in a long time. Rarely see them at Farmer's Market.

Onebyone

We have a bumper Mulberry crop every year but they grow on a vine in a tree and the berries are too high to reach. No low limbs to climb. Animals have a treat. Same with muscadines.

We have lots of blackberry bushes in ditches and woods but no one with any sense will dare go pick them. Chiggers love blackberry bushes. LOL

Dedemac

I have a currant bush that is over 20 years old, I make jam and wine. We also have honey berries and had Gooseberries before it got mowed by accident. The honey berries are just starting up here. And forgot about the horseradish that is in the garden, I like my strong!

1CharmShort

Akebia - aka Chocolate Vine - have 3 varieties in the garden - it's perennial and the leaves stay on all year here....it makes a great barrier between the road and the yard and while the fruit looks very very weird, it tastes kinda good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMDct91g6RQ

I used to live in an area where acres of huckleberries grew wild behind the house - picked em by the gallons, but had to watch carefully for black bears.....

ibex94

In New Orleans the mulberries in my backyard are pretty flavorless. The grackles show up after they have fermented on the ground and feast on them. It is rather funny getting fussed at by drunken ravens.

We used to have a fig tree that produced tons and peach trees that produced tons. Hurricanes killed them off (before Katrina in 2005). I haven't been able to get either to grow in the backyard ever since. Perhaps a fig tree will survive my negligance but it is under the mulberry and has most of the sunlight blocked off now. Other critters eat the figs before I can get to them. Not too many on the tree in previous years. This year they are more abundant.

My satsuma tree is doing great! Bumper crops every year. I hope it survives the heat of this summer. I purposefully left a mimosa tree to grow near it to provide it with a touch of shade. We will see. I want to plant a kumquat tree. Grapefruit, too. If it thrives on neglect and we can eat it, I want it in my backyard.

sewingpup

umm, I have a june berry bush and choke and pin cherries. The birds and chipmunks usually get most of the blueberries. The pin cherries and choke cherries used to be used to make jelly when I was a kid. Now off to the store. I do have a red current bush that sometimes produces enough to make current jelly which I really like. I also have golden raspberries which I don't think I have ever seen in a store.

1CharmShort

How fun is this thread!

I also have miniature kiwis - they are about the size of green grapes, and they look and taste just like their bigger siblings. Deer love them, so I only get the highest growing ones to eat and use in jam.

Iceblossom

Our new house has a large ravine just teaming with wildlife for the backyard. I will be planting some food crops but it will be battle to harvest. The best place I have in terms of sun is my side/front yard -- but the deer are in the front yard too and raccoons and such can easily travel. I understand deer don't like rhubarb and I do so that will likely be one of my choices. I have a hard time finding tomatillos in the supermarket here and will probably grow my own.

In the slim chance that anyone from the boards is within a 2 hour drive of Peoria, I would love to find someone with pawpaws. It is on my list of things I would really like to try.
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/what-is-a-pawpaw/

Snooze2978

I have raised beds filled with eith or both strawberries and red/white raspberries. Right now it's strawberry time and I'm now up to 28 qt bags in the freezer. We got a lot of rain at the perfect time as they were blooming so the berries are much larger this year. My raspberries are both red and white and usually start ripening in late August though a few bushes like to start early and I'm already seeing a few blooms. I still have a few thornless blackberry bushes popping up though I keep trying to dig them up every Fall though they don't seem to take the hint. I just don't have the room for them though they were nice when I first tried them before the raspberries came along.

I freeze all my berries, use some during the year and then around April-May I take them to y congregation and give them out to all the familes. I have a small congregation thankfully as I didn't have as many to give away this year but next year looks promising. I also have rhubarb which I'll pull every so often and freeze what I think I can use and give the rest away to the congregation.