Honeyberries (Haskap)

Honeyberries are the most successful berry I have been able to grow in our area (we are in zone 5A). Honeyberries do very well in cooler climates - they are very hardy and even the flowers are frost resistant (to a point). The berries come very early - for us it's usually around mid-June. You need two plants from two different varieties in order to cross pollinate. I have a couple of Borealis (introduced by the University of Saskatchewan) and a couple of Indigo Gem. They both originally come from Canadian Tire as 5 gallon plants.

Honeyberries look like elongated blueberries. They are sweet and a little tangy. They are high in vitamin A and C, antioxidants, and lots of other good stuff.  

When honeyberries turn blue, they still need another 2-3 weeks before they are ready to be harvested. During that 3 weeks, I found that birds consistently ate all the berries. We were never able to harvest our honeyberries until we invested in bird netting that we simply drape over the row of bushes, and tuck at their base. Bird netting works like a charm, but, as a downside it is possible for birds to get caught in it, so we keep a close eye on it (which is easy since it's right outside our front door and my office window). We have freed a few birds from it over the years, with no casualties.

​I can usually tell the honeyberries are ready to harvest when they come off the branches very easily, or I notice some are falling to the ground. At that point the flesh is red/purple and the berries are sweet. Another tell-tale sign is that the U-pick farm down the street starts to advertise theirs as ready to pick :) 

I hand-pick my berries, although I have read that some people shake the bushes into a kiddie pool or over cardboard - my bushes are too close together. It's quite time consuming. It takes me about 15 minutes to pick 1 liter. 

We eat as many as we can fresh (great on ice cream or in a smoothie). I freeze the rest in 2 cup portions in Food Saver bags. When they thaw, they release a lot of juice. I pour that juice off into a mason jar and we use it to make fizzy drinks with our Soda stream, and I use the berries in baking. My favorite recipe to make is fruit crisp - a mix of honeyberries and pears is great in that recipe. Honey berry flavour is intense and I find the pear balances it out nicely.