Summer fruit favourites

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Everyone,

Here in the GYO office, our thoughts have turned to summery harvests, in particular delicious, juicy fruit.

This got us wondering, what are your favourite summer bush or cane fruits and what makes you love them?

Answers may be edited and published in the July issue of Grow Your Own

Laura

[SarzWix]

A fellow plot-holder has a pinkcurrant bush, which he kindly shared some fruit from last year and I was hooked. They're absolutely gorgeous, a beautiful translucent pink, sweeter than other currants and very juicy. So I treated myself to a bare-root bush 'Gloire de Sablon' over the winter and am impatiently awaiting the first tiny crop this summer

[BertieFox]

Not sure if this qualifies as a bush or cane fruit, but it's called a 'kiwai', an Actinidia arguta, which bears gooseberry sized 'kiwi' fruit which you eat whole.
While the true kiwi fruit (Actinidia sinensis or edulis) presents major challenges, take years to flower and a long time to ripen the fruit, the 'kiwai' is much easier and hardier.
It makes much smaller vines than the kiwi, flowers very much later so misses the frosts when grown outside, and because the fruit are small they usually ripen in September or October on the vine. As you eat the whole fruit, there is none of that fiddly peeling as with kiwis, and they are altogether sweeter, juicier and better tasting.
The only drawback is that they are weaker growing, but supposedly can stand very cold temperatures. The main problem occurs with late frosts that can kill back the early growth.
I don't know how widely available they now are in the UK, but in France you can get a well-grown male and female plant for 30 euros the two, which will fruit within a year or two.

[rustylady]

For me it's got to be raspberries.

[Paulieb]

Blackcurrants for me. Probably biased as there were loads of huge bushes when we moved into our new house a few years ago. However, they are so easy to grow and always get a good crop. Also when my wife makes a sponge cake with my homemade blackcurrant jam in the middle that is the best.

[zazen999]

Japanese Wineberry. Absolutely gorgeous rare treat.

[Scarlet]

Well, I'm a big raspberry fan but last year VC kindly sent me some cape gooseberry seeds and they were just fab. Fruited all through summer and were still producing in early Oct. Great fresh and make a really tasty jam.

[SarzWix]

Japanese Wineberry. Absolutely gorgeous rare treat.

Ooh, I have one of those too, but have never tasted one. Something else to look forward too

[veggiechicken]

The first raspberry, warm and velvety, picked from the cane as I wander through the fruit bushes, and knowing that there will be raspberries for months to come, right the way through to autumn. Glorious - the taste of summer sun in a berry!!

[Hans Mum]

Strawberries warm from the heat of the sun takes a lot to be beaten, many get picked not so many reach home & goosegogs a bit sharp but yummy

[Laura Hillier]

Haha, yes, perhaps 'hurtling' was a little over the top of me...the months are flying past which is the scary thing! Hopefully there will be some of the strange bright, warm thing in the sky again soon. What is it called again?

All great choices so far! Is anybody else trying new varieties this year?

Laura

[Paulieb]

All great choices so far! Is anybody else trying new varieties this year?

Laura

I'm awaiting delivery of a chilean Guava and a 'cocktail Kiwi' (similar or the same as Kiwi Issai), so excited for those.

Also might get something off my 'pink lemonade' blueberry this year, and I do have 3 japanese wineberries (as mentioned above), but as they fruit on older wood I might have to wait until next year!!

[sammy_roser]

I adore fresh picked strawberries. Not the varieties you get in the supermarket now a days but the ones you can grow at home such as Cambridge Favourite still warm from the sun.

[DuncanM]

Strawberries are my favourite. I eat them till I feel sick. Then I repeat every day I have ripe fruit.

I am also looking forward to 'pink lemonade' blueberries like Paulieb.

[Speed Gardener]

For me it's currants, currants and more currants! Red, pink, white and black, and jostaberries too! My wife thinks I'm obsessed with them, I've only got about twenty varieties!
I like to eat them all year round, must freeze about fifty pounds of fruit every year..