Who knows about Saskatoons?

[next61]

Are they grown in US? Is it a market for these pomes here?
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...saskatoons.htm

[tinda]

Saskatoons are something like huckleberries. I would go out after the wild ones and come home with a 5 gallon pail full. A lot didn't make it to the pail.

You can get saskatoon bushes from a plant nursery. The tame ones are better yielding and bigger berries.

tinda

[moonwolf]

We pick them along with wild blueberries in late summer.
Saskatoon berries make excellent jams and pies when cooked down. Some don't care for eating them fresh like blueberries as they seem 'gritty', though I don't mind them. They taste great.

[next61]

Are they popular in Canada only? How do they taste?

[james dilley]

This may be A dumb question But what the heck are they??? A berry of some kind I take????

[next61]

Originally Posted by james dilley

This may be A dumb question But what the heck are they??? A berry of some kind I take????

That's how I felt too until I google it; they look like blueberries but I have no idea how they taste like.

[wr]

Saskatoons would sell very well in the US, in my opinion. I managed a cafe outside Calgary and during the 10 days of the Calgary Stampede we had a great many US travellers stop in and we always had Saskatoon pies on the menu at that time of year and although our Canadian customers would come in and have a piece of pie, almost every US visitor would insist upon buy an entire pie and those that didn't were simply polite but would rave about the wonderful flavor. The wild berries are subject to seasonal conditions and I can assure you, picking them in my area isn't exactly a pleasure but can be done. The domestic variety is a lot more tolerant of weather conditions. If the wild ones don't get rain when they should it affects size and flavor severely Unlike, Moonwolf, I'm on the prairie and we find them along the river and it's serious business, women will keep their prime picking areas secret even from their best friend. They tend to be more tart than a blueberry and for the life of me, I really can't think of anything that they really do taste like.

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by next61

Are they grown in US? Is it a market for these pomes here?
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...saskatoons.htm

They are called Service Berries in Missouri where they are the first shrub to flower in the spring. I believe that they are a member of the blueberry family and can be grown for food, although mostly around here people just let the wildlife eat them because collecting the berries are very labor-intensive for what you get.

I don't know of any place that sells these bushes, although, I'm sure they are out there. Other than as an ornamental or possibly wildlife, I don't think there is much of a market for them.

donsgal

[APPway]

The City People here buy them up like crazy when they are in season.
We hate the wait for them to get ripe and start picking.
There is a big patch of them in our ------ and also about 5 km from the house there is a place we go that has about 3 acres of them on the roadside but better get there quick and as soon as they are ripe as people are always watching the same patches. Also have alot of choke cherries growing around here and can not wait to start picking them also.
I think they would market good in the states once people tasted them. we are getting abunch of seedlings from sask power nursery in 2008 just got on their list.

APPway

[painterswife]

They are called serviceberries here. I could fill several freezers with the berries within walking distance from my home. They are what the indians used to make pemican.

[next61]

So they where used as an ingredient for a "native energy bar". Interesting.
http://www.physicalmind.com/pemmican.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican