We all know fruit like apples and pears and bush fruit like raspberries, but there is other fruit we can grow in South Dakota besides these.
- Like dewberries which look like blackberries, however, their canes have a habit of growing on the ground. They are used for pies and jellies. Once started they take minimum care.
- Huckleberries are a perennial bush that looks like a blueberry with a sweet flavor. Used by American Indian tribes for food and dye. Often grown in shadier areas the berries can be dried.
- I have a couple of elderberry plants that grow 6 to 8 feet tall producing a lot of berries. The reddish to purple berries remind me of chokecherries. I have made syrup which was great.
- Everyone knows of gooseberry pie. I have grown gooseberries for years which are amazingly easy to do. Gooseberries start as green fruits turning to purple which becomes extremely sweet.
- Currants look like gooseberry bushes but without the thorns. Red to black berries used like gooseberries.
- Mulberries varieties come in white, red, purple, and black sweet fruit. Silkworms in China live in mulberry trees. Being a tree, it grows around 30 feet tall. They are not grown as an ornamental tree being messy with the dropping fruit. Good for syrup and pies.
- Buffaloberries grow as small trees similar to Russian Olive trees. The little red fruits are bitter but make good pies. These trees are not for ornamental use because of the large thorns which only the buffalos can get to.
- Think of raspberries growing on bushes with a large purple flower and you have the salmonberry. They grow on a shrub growing 6 to 8 feet tall. They do like moist soils and some shade.
- How about a blueberry that grows on a small 10-foot tree, you got the saskatoon. They belong to the family of serviceberries which are a large family of berries. Saskatoon has the flavor hint of cherry surviving temp down to -60.
- Barberries are grown around here as ornamental bushes with green, red, or yellow foliage. With thorns, they are used as barrier plants. There are varieties grown for their small, red fruits in use with jelly and dried.
Of course, let us not forget the native plums and chokecherries. Many varieties have come out of these families making for larger fruit.