At 07:12 AM 4/18/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Thanks, Susan. Can we buy blackberries bushes anywhere at a garden store?
>
>Mary

I heartily recommend Bear Creek Nursery for everything like berries or
heirloom apples or unusual permaculture sorts of plants. Send for their
catalog by emailing <[log in to unmask]>

It's the crazy season for them, so it may be too late this year, but
they'll send one eventually, and it's good for two years. I believe they
often have a fall sale, as well. Fall plantings often do very well for
perennials.

I forgot to mention that if you try to tip root the wild blackberries
(which I think would be good fun) the softened soil has to be kept moist.

You can find berry bushes of many kinds (but not always the most interesting
varieties) at most good nurseries.

What I like to do, if I move to a new section of the country, is see what
grows wild in the area, and then choose cultivated varieties of that. These
plants usually do well without a lot of fuss.

For instance, when I moved up here, I saw that elderberries and currants
grew in the woods: so I chose named varieties of elderberries, currants,
and gooseberries (which are closely related to currants.) Blackberries,
both native and Himalayan, grew in the countryside like weeds. So I grew
raspberries, and am adding loganberries this year. That is, if blackberries
grow wild, almost any bramble fruit will do well. Dogwood grows in the
Oregon woods, as an understory plant. Therefore, I planted a Cornelian
Cherry Dogwood from Bear Creek Nursery (Cornus mas, has small, tart,
pleasant fruits used in Europe for jam; they dry well on the tree).
Like the elderberries and currants, it has absolutely thrived here.

It seems to me, without any direct evidence, that berries such as
currants, or Cornelian Cherry Dogwood, or blueberries, are less
bred for excessive sugar and have better fiber than many fruits
like peaches or bananas, etc. Can anyone tell me if they are
closer to the kinds of fruits our distant ancestors gathered wild?

Regards,

Susan

P.S. Please note that when stores, even good stores with organic
food, sell "dried currants" they are nothing of the kind. They
are a sort of miniature grape, much easier than currants to grow
and pick in quantity, and have as bad a glycemic index as raisins,
which indeed they are.