Huckleberries

Sweet purple berries are great fresh or cooked. These make wonderful pies, jams, jellies and other sweets! They are much like Wonderberry but are larger in size and give heavier yields. Very easy cultivation and you can have fresh fruit to harvest in as little as 70 days.

• 6-12 hours of Sun
• Sprouts in 7-21 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 65-75 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8"
• Plant Spacing: 15-18"
• Frost Hardy: No
  
• Solanum nigrum
  

Growing Tips: Start indoors in fine, moist soil, 6-8 weeks before setting out after frost. Harvest berries only when fully ripe, very black and soft. Warning: Green fruit may be poisonous to eat.

75 days. An antioxidant rich garden berry that undergoes the most miraculous flavor transformation when cooked and just lightly sweetened! There is a stark contrast between eating the berries raw and cooked and sweetened state. The raw ripe berries have a tart flavor, similar to tomatillo, yummy for savory snacking and salsas. The cooked and lightly sweetened berries are reminiscent of blackberry or gooseberry. The garden huckleberry is native to Africa and is a solanaceous berry in the tomato family. The intense purple black hue of the berries indicates high levels of the antioxidant anthocyanin. We adore this nutritious, quick maturing annual which produces masses of fruit in a short season. For very best flavor it is important to harvest at the correct stage. Berries will be a shiny, green to black when under-mature; at this stage the flavor will be unpleasant and the berries may be slightly poisonous. The berries mature to a dull black color and should be slightly soft to the touch; at this point the berries are perfect to eat and quite tasty. The truly spectacular flavor of these berries is revealed when the berries are cooked and sweetened; this brings out a fruity, blackberry-like flavor that is simply sublime. We have seen these berries re-imagined into delectable jams, pies, syrups and fillings--easily one of the most rewarding fruit crops to grow!

• 6-12 hours of Sun
• Sprouts in 7-21 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 65-75 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8"
• Plant Spacing: 15-18"
• Frost Hardy: No
  
• Solanum melanocerasum
  

Growing Tips: Start indoors in fine, moist soil, 6-8 weeks before setting out after frost. Harvest berries only when fully ripe, very black and soft. Warning: Green fruit may be poisonous to eat.

75 days. These have an incredible sweet taste, similar to real blackberries. Attractive 2- to 3-foot plants yield clusters of pea-sized black berries. Brought to Kansas by Volga German immigrants about 1875, and still appreciated by their descendants, who grow and use them in such traditional recipes as Kuchen, Maultaschen, Klump and Knebel. Eat only fully ripe, dark blueblack berries. Perfect for pies and preserves!

• 6-12 hours of Sun
• Sprouts in 7-21 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-85 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8"
  
• Plant Spacing: 24-32"
• Frost Hardy: No
  
• Solanum nigrum
  

Growing Tips: Start indoors in fine, moist soil, 6-8 weeks before setting out after frost. Harvest berries only when fully ripe, very black and soft. Warning: Green fruit may be poisonous to eat.

70 days. Here’s a most unusual nightshade plant, collected originally by the Gettles in Umbria, Italy, in the ancient Roman site of Ocriculum. It was found growing along the Tiber River, growing with the common black nightshade, (S. nigrum). Plants reach 2-3 feet tall, having typical nightshade leaves and white flowers. The small berries have a lot of visual interest being a bright orange—not at all the dark purple that you might expect. At maturity the plants are covered in clusters of brilliant orange! This species has been used as food for millenia, use only ripe fruit for eating.

• 8-12 hours of Sun
• Sprouts in 7-21 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-85 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8"
• Plant Spacing: 14"
• Frost Hardy: No
  
• Solanum nigrum
  

Growing Tips: Start indoors in fine, moist soil, 6-8 weeks before setting out after frost. Harvest berries only when fully ripe, very orange and soft. Warning: Green fruit may be poisonous to eat.

75 days. Developed by Luther Burbank. Tasty, small, blue-purple fruit good fresh or cooked. Small plants produce good yields in about 75 days. An historic heirloom that is easy to grow. Eat only fully ripe, dark blue-black berries showing no green.

• 6-12 hours of Sun
• Sprouts in 7-21 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 65-75 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8"
• Plant Spacing: 14"
• Frost Hardy: No
  
• Solanum burbankii
  

Growing Tips: Start indoors in fine, moist soil, 6-8 weeks before setting out after frost. Harvest berries only when fully ripe, very black and soft. Warning: Green fruit may be poisonous to eat.