- Author: Tina Saravia
The spring blooms are gone. Summer in my garden never had the colorful pleasing look of spring blooms. But when it comes to the bounty from the garden, we're just beginning to see the fruits of my labor. The most delicious cherries came and went.
The serviceberry, a.k.a. Juneberry or Saskatoon, (Amelanchier 'Timm & Success') is successfully giving us sweet little fruits that look like blueberries. Although they don't taste like blueberries, they have a pretty, mild, sweet flavor that could be mistaken for blueberries. I also noticed that about one in ten has a distinctively fragrant flavor, like an almond flavored custard.
The marionberries (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus)) are also starting to ripen. The marionberry is a cultivar of the blackberry, a cross between the 'Chehalem' and 'Olallie' varieties, and named Marion, the county where it was tested extensively. The ripe berries are sweet with a hint of tartness and a distinctive fragrance that I don't get from the native or wild blackberries.
I'm waiting on the passionfruit vine (Passiflora edulis ‘Frederick') for its second flush of fruit. It has a lot of flowers.
Meanwhile, the pepino dulce or melon pear (Solanum muricatum Ait.) has some pretty purple flowers and a fruit that looks like an egg-shaped cucumber. This plant belongs to the Solanaceae family, the same family as tomatoes and potatoes. It is somewhat of a mysterious plant in that it's known be a native of the Andes, but there are no known wild plants and there are no details of its origin. It is commercially grown in Chile, NewZealand, and Western Australia, so it's not a total mystery plant. I can't wait to see what this fruit will taste like. It had one fruit earlier in the season that tasted nothing like a melon or a cucumber. But maybe this time, it will taste better, especially if I wait until it's fully ripe.
