Honeyberry

I’ve been so pumped to talk about this plant for a few years now!

I have come to love these berries more than blueberries, and they are quickly becoming a favorite early ripening fruit!

Honeyberries also called “haskaps” are a shrub in the honeysuckle family that produces edible and tasty fruit!

Plant Profile:

Scientific Name: Lonicera caerulea

Preferred Habitat: Soil high in organic matter and well-draining locations with full sun.

Edible Parts: Fruit

Distribution: Native to Eurasia, can be found in North America and Southern Europe as cultivated.

Harvest Season: Early to late spring (particularly May and June)

Key Identifiers: Oval leaves, cone shaped yellow flowers, or oblong blue-purple fruit that have yeast blooms on them similar to blueberries or juniper berries.

Toxic Look-Alikes: Many species of honeysuckle are inedible and can look similar as a shrub, but none that I know of have fruit that look like honeyberry.

Nutrition: (Per 100g)

• Protein: 1.5g

• Total Fat: 0.2g

  • Saturated Fat: 0.02g

  • Monounsaturated Fat: 0.06g

  • Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.12g

• Carbohydrates: 9.9g

  • Fiber: 3.0g

  • Sugar: 6.2g

• Vitamin C: 30 mg (33% RDA)

• Vitamin A: 55 IU (2% RDA)

• Vitamin K: 19.3 mcg (16% RDA)

• Vitamin E: 1.1 mg (7% RDA)

• Thiamin (B1): 0.01 mg (1% RDA)

• Riboflavin (B2): 0.02 mg (2% RDA)

• Niacin (B3): 0.3 mg (2% RDA)

• Pantothenic Acid (B5): 0.2 mg (4% RDA)

• Vitamin B6: 0.1 mg (8% RDA)

• Folate (B9): 6 mcg (2% RDA)

• Vitamin B12: 0 mcg (0% RDA)

• Iron: 0.6 mg (3% RDA)

• Calcium: 30 mg (3% RDA)

• Potassium: 160 mg (3% RDA)

• Magnesium: 15 mg (4% RDA)

• Phosphorus: 18 mg (3% RDA)

• Zinc: 0.2 mg (2% RDA)

• High in anthocyanins

• Contains small amounts of quercetin, rutin, and resveratrol

This is one of the most nutritious berries we’ve ever covered! The antioxidant content even rivals blueberries!

Uses

Texture and flavor wise, honeyberries are comparable to blueberries.

The flavor is more complex than blueberries and tastes more like if you combined a blueberry with a raspberry or something, but they make an excellent replacement if you can’t grow blueberries!

They can be used for jams, desserts, pies, bread, juice, wine, ferments, eaten fresh, or with salads. Pretty much anything you can do with blueberries or similar berries; you can do with honeyberries!

Note that they need to be completely ripe to taste best. Otherwise, they’ll lean pretty tart in flavor.

Growth Habits

Honeyberries are pretty low maintenance as far as berries go.

Unlike other members of the honeysuckle family, these grow as a small shrub that generally don’t get more than about 6ft or so tall at full maturity.

So far, I’ve only grown them for a handful of years (they produced fruit after their first year, but admittedly not a lot!) but so far they seem very easy and beginner friendly!

I’ve been told that they respond well to “stool mounding”. This is where you mound up the soil around the base of the shrub so it’s covering parts of the branches, then you can cut new rooted plants off of the main one. I haven’t personally tried it yet on mine since they’re so young, but they do seem to branch out quite a bit at the base.

Your biggest issue with honeyberries will likely be birds since they absolutely love the fruit as much as we do! Once producing fruit, I would recommend covering them with netting or tule to protect them.

These shrubs are very cold hardy surviving temps down to −47 °C (−53 °F). The flowers are also notably frost hardy.

Be aware that in order to get fruit, you need at least two varieties to cross! So when you pick some, make sure they flower at overlapping times! (More on that below)

Additional Information

I was able to order my first three online, and I just picked up another three this spring at a plant sale.

My experience has been a little flawed since I have moved the shrubs around twice since planting them (not ideal) so I kinda delayed the maturity process and stressed the plants out. That said, I’ve gotten small harvests of fruit!

The first time they fruit, the berries will be very tiny. As the plant matures, they get slightly bigger. Most end up being around the size of an olive once mature which can take a few years.

Cultivars

Now I know what you’re thinking, there can’t possibly be very many cultivars of honeyberry available right? Right? WRONG! There are a ton!

• Boreal Blizzard - I have this one, it’s my best producer. So far, it’s the best growing out of my three and I’ve heard similar things from others!

• Aurora - I also have this one, known for flavor and large berries, best for fresh eating

• Indigo Gem - Early ripening, great for fresh eating and fermentation

• Boreal Beast - Another one I have, great vigor and disease resistance, large, tasty fruits

• Boreal Beauty - Another classic with good flavor that acts as a cross pollination for Beast and Blizzard

Check out this page to figure out which ones can pollinate which, one factor is bloom time, but sometimes genetic makeup can be a factor as well: Honeyberry USA

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