Uncommon Fruits

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Red currants are known mostly for the beautiful jelly they make, but I let mine hang on the bushes until they are dead ripe and then eat them right out in the garden. The fresh flavor is admittedly sprightly, but this is welcome during the hot summer days during which currants ripen.

Red currants and gooseberries are borne on bushes growing three feet high and wide. These are plants of the north: they thrive where winter cold drops to —40°F but languish in the hot summers of the South. For best production, gooseberry and red currant bushes need annual pruning. Each winter, I cut away at their bases any branches older than four years old and all but a half-dozen or so of the newest shoots growing up from ground level. One shortcoming of the gooseberry is its stout thorns, which necessitate picking fruits with at least one hand gloved.

Juneberry. These fruits are blueberry-sized and dark blue, so comparisons with blueberries seem unavoidable. In fact, juneberries are juicy and sweet, with their own distinctive flavor that is a bit almondy.

Also in contrast to blueberries, juneberries are not at C4 all finicky about soil and will I grow where winter lows dip even to -40°f . There are many edible species of juneber ry, so you can grow a plant the size of a low shrub, a large shrub, or a small tree. Bus Bushy juneberries benefit from annual winter pruning, but regular pruning is not re quired for the tree forms. Unfortunately juneberries are as popular with the birds as blueberries. Guess what month the fruits ripen?

Hardy Kiwi. This fruit has the same sparkling, emerald flesh as market kiwis (a relative), and the same flavor—a savory mix of acidity and sweetness akin to a dead-ripe pineapple. But hardy kiwis are the size of grapes and have tender, smooth. It green skins and so can be eaten whole, just like grapes. As implied by the name, hardy kiwis laugh off cold, down to -30°F; market kiwis tolerate only 0°. Fruits ripen in late summer and early fall.

The plant is a vigorous twining vine that needs a pergola or trellis over which to clamber. Allow 150 square feet per plant. Prune the plants each year as you would grapes. A more casual approach to pruning, with some sacrifice in production, is to just lop back unruly branches.

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