Who Grows Berries/Fruit

[Mainegal]

Sounds yummy Randy, I love anything with blueberries.

 

[Randy]

Laurie, I don't do weel with pie crust, so I usually do a streusel topping for my cobblers. They are good, but the one I saw Robin Miller do was a batter more that a crust and it was quite fluid when she poured it into the pan. She had sugared some frozen berries before starting on the batter and when the batter was ready, she dumped the berries into it. The berries sank in the batter and when baked, it looked more like a blueberry cake than pie. Maybe I should get off the computer and head for the kitchen while it's empty instead of playing on the computer. LOL

 

[Kya D]

Never fail pie crust is the only one I use. Up until I found this recipe I couldn't make pie crust for anything.

 

[Mainegal]

Sounds yummy Randy, you'll have to let me know how it was once you make it..

 

[plantlover]

Thanks, Dor!

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

Dor, we are MUCH dryer than you are. We haven't had measurable rain in so long, I can't remember when I saw it last!

If you are considering a Meyer Lemon tree, before you buy one of theirs, investigate the dwarf varieties, because you could grow that in a pot. I think I've seen those for sale at our HEB stores. Meyer lemons are amazingly delicious, and they are rather different than traditional lemons.

Randy, if blueberries need a lot of water, that could be a problem here. We're in a drought that just keeps getting worse. Wombat was right, though...I need to be looking for heat tolerant varieties. I was astounded by the price of frozen blueberries. Every time I walk into a grocery store, the price of something is higher than it was the week before. I get mad, come home, tell my husband of my horrible new finds, and then swear that we've got to find a place where we can have a garden that's large enough to provide some of our food supply.

Mainegal, if you love blueberries, I'll have to dig up the recipe I have for Blueberry Buckle. It was given to my mother about 43 years ago by a lady who lived next door to us. She was the sweetest lady and the best baker ever. Blueberry Buckle is like a coffee cake. This lady just so happened to have been from Maine. I posted it on the other site, but I'll dig it out and post it again here.

 

[Randy]

I made the cobbler and posted a couple of photos in the "Recipe" thread. It came out like the one I saw on TV although I did double the recipe and use a whole quart of blueberries. I doubled the other ingredients too. I had to increase the cooking time from 45 minutes to 65 minutes though. But that was no big deal.

Susan, at our market the other day, I saw the dried blueberries for $17 a pound. The ones I have are frozen and I have about 5 gallons of them left. I picked 8 gallons last summer.

 

[Dor]

This is my first time growing strawberries. I bought a package of 10 at Walmart and want to plant them today or tomorrow. Has anyone grown them in containers or hanging pots before? I want to grow some in a hanging basket and the others in my flower bed.

 

[Acacius48]

Dor I am growing strawberries from seeds for the first time too ! The seeds are just starting to sprout now, they are alpine. Mine will be small fruit but I hear they are tastey. I will have mine in containers too... I would love to hear some good pointers.

I had gotten cuttings from Wonderful Pomegranate from a generous offer for postage. I rooted them about a year ago and it looks like it is putting out flower buds for the first time! Does anyone know the chances of me actually getting a fruit this year? I am pretty excited. Hehe. Even if it doesn't produce fruit this year, I hope I at least get to see some blooms.

Sincerely,
Vanessa

 

[Gloria]

Here's pics of the Marion berry bush Randy sent to me. I'm looking forward to making my own cuttings in time and having a nice size patch.

 

[Gloria]

I've trans planted 3 blue berry bushes from my parents old farm and I want more! Does anyone have a favorite site I could order from? I priced plants at out local seed store today and they were 23.95 a plant. That's a little pricy for me.

 

[Randy]

Gloria, I mailed off the other two Marionberry plants to Pennsylvania yesterday. They looked pretty good with new growth already starting to show. That berry looks good. I'm hoping to also root some morer this year along with some Cascade Blackberries. The Cascade is a very old berry that Fiona says makes the best berry pie ever. We had a lady come by here yesterday that has Youngberries at her place and she offered me cutiings. I don't know where I would put them though. The Youngberry is a berry developed by a man named Young back in 1905. It is a hybrid cross between a Dewberry and a blackberry. Another item of note though is that the Youngberry is a grandparent of the Marionberry. It's awfully hard to beat the Marionberry.

 

[Wombat]

Never tasted marionberries Randy although my mum grew youngberries on a trellis when I was young. I've just planted my first keriberry, hopefully it'll do well as the fruit is delicious.....

 

[Randy]

Marionberries are a cultivar developed for the commercial market by Oregon State University's agriculture department. It is one of many, actually. The research and development done there is funded entirely by the agricultural industry. The Youngberry has an interesting story too, but it was developed by an individual. He had a corresponding relationship with a man very famous in horticulture, Luther Burbank. Another interesting story is how the Boysenberry came to be. It was developed by a man who eventually sold his farm and gave up working on the berries. But he had shared his knowledge with a man who worked for the U. S. department of agriculture. Somehow this ag man met and discussed the berries the other fellow had been working with another farmer and the two of them went to the farm and were able to find some of the vines still alive. They salvaged some of them and the second man, or at least his wife, began using some of the berries in making pies that she sold. Eventually, someone asked what kind of berries they were and the farmer stumbled a bit as they had not really been named yet. But he blurted out the name Boysenberry because the original farmer was named Boysen. The family that was making the pies and selling them was named Knotts and their farm is well known in California now as Knott's Berry Farm. I may have my facts a little skewed, but that's basically the story of how that berry came about.

 

[Gloria]

RJ and I transplanted 6 more blue berry bushes today. I didn't realize there were so many bushes left in the woods of this old farm! I'm in berry bliss! I guess these are all wild blue berries but I do know that where I got these from that they grow nice size berries and not the little bitty ones. Some of these bushes were 5-6 foot tall. There were some bigger but I could not dig those! Too much to handle!
Randy... I blame you with my new obsession for berries!!! LOL

 

[Mainegal]

Great find Gloria
I want to start a berry patch in my yard. Have wild blackberries (think that is what they are called ) that take over everything that I'm trying to get rid of. I want to get some blueberries and some different types of berries. Also would love to grow some seedless grapes.

 

[Wombat]

Thank you for the info and history lesson Randy, much appreciated as I'd never come accross them before but I have been to Knottsberry Farm before though
Wow good for you Gloria what a great find especially with such mature bushes as well...as for those 6ft tall ones, if I lived a bit closer......
Mainey I have some seedless grapes growing but I have to net them so the fruit bats and possums don't eat the lot lol. I'm also a berry lover but can only grow a few types here as it's way to hot and humid

 

[Randy]

Well, Miss Gloria, I'm glad to be part of the problem. I don't think I am obsessed with berries although I recognize that I live in an ideal situation for excellent berry production. There was a neighbor lady that moved with her family about 30 years ago down to Arizona. We stayed in touch and she said one of the things she missed most from Oregon was the availabilty of the great berries. I have to admit that I rather took them for granted. But her comment caused me to reconsider and even now when I pick the wild berries, she comes to my mind. She died shortly after that conversation and I will see the wild berries very differently because of her.

 

[dtanderson]

I've trans planted 3 blue berry bushes from my parents old farm and I want more! Does anyone have a favorite site I could order from? I priced plants at out local seed store today and they were 23.95 a plant. That's a little pricy for me.

Here is a site that you can order some blueberry bushes from. I have ordered some muscadine grape vines from them this year.

Denis

 

[Randy]

Gloria, this is beside the point, but I was talking with a friend of mine, one of the blueberry growers. Over the winter he has expanded his blueberry operation by about a thousand bushes. But what I was talking to him about was propagating blueberries. I tried doing some cuttings about 15 years ago and was not successful. He told me that wasn't the way the nursery business does them. He tried to explain it to me, but I didn't really understand what he was saying. It sounded very complicated. I did tell him though that I intended to try doing some cuttings again since I have a little better facility now.

 

[RiverRock]

I am trying blue berries this year for the first time. Also transplanting some red raspberries from my folks house. I talked with a guy up in WA today and he is sending me a wild salmon berry plant. I am very excited for that. I remember as a kid growing up on Alaska picking the wild salmon berries there and hey are wonderful, so looking very foward to that. Also have a nice strawberry patch starting. Maybe next year will add marionberry.

RR