Edible berries are an extensive category of fruit which includes many fruits that you’re probably familiar with. For those in the US (me), blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are well known and commonly grown commercially and in home gardens. The definition of a berry scientifically is definitely different than the social definition of a berry, as blackberries and raspberries are scientifically considered “aggregate fruits”. The point of this post is not to get into the scientific classifications of fruits, but to briefly outline the different varieties of edible berries that are available for homesteaders and permaculturists (permasteaders, anyone?) to grow in their regions, and help make a determination of the types of edible berries that make sense for homesteaders to grow in large quantities to feed themselves, their families, their community, and the wild animals. Essentially, if it has “berry” in it’s name, I’m going to consider it a berry.
Since this post is focused on edible berries, feeding the wildlife with berries that are edible to fauna but not for humans is going to take a back seat for a moment, though consideration will still be made for pollinators, since without pollination there will not be any berries. I’m also going to assume that if you’re homesteading, or planning to homestead that you will be doing so on a property that is not subject to Home Ownership Association (HOA) rules or has super lax HOA rules like my neighborhood. If your HOA is restrictive, then you should overthrow your HOA!
But I digress.
Edible Berries: A food Source for Many Cultures
Berries are a fundamental food source and therefore, there is a large variety of edible berries, and new cultivars of berries are being developed every year. Edible berries are bred for a number of traits just like any other fruit, and of course improved yield, pest resistance, disease resistance, storage ability, and flavor are at the top of the list. Other considerations may be the ease of harvesting, whether the plant is native (or non-native but not invasive, or invasive) in your area, sunlight requirements, nitrogen fixing ability, and unique attributes like medicinal properties, a source of caffeine, or a source of wax for candles (like Bayberry and Wax Myrtle).
So here we go – Edible berries you should consider growing on your permaculture homestead:
- Blueberries (Genus: Vaccinium) – There are many different species of blueberries, so you should be able to find a species that is native to your region, if you are in the US, Europe, Asia, or South America. For me in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, we have wild farkleberries and wild dangleberries (not to be confused with dingleberries…ew sorry). There seem to be efforts to grow blueberries in some African countries and apparently largely for export to Europe, but blueberries are not native in Africa. There are some berries that are similar to blueberries that are grown across Europe and are in the same genus (Vaccinium), but are called Bilberry, Blaeberry (Scotland and Northern England), and/or Whortleberry (Southern England). Bilberries are softer and juicer than blueberries, so they are hard to pick and transport, which means they are ripe for growing on a European homestead.
- Strawberries (Fragaria vesca and Fragaria × ananassa) – There’s two major categories of strawberries – the Alpine/Woodland/Wild category and the garden category that is the result of hybridization of two wild strawberries from different parts of the world (a Virginia strawberry and a Chilean strawberry). Though strawberries are typically red, there’s a variety called pineberry that is white! The strawberries from the hybrid were much larger than from either of it’s parents and then the growing of those strawberries took off. Personally, I love alpine strawberries and I just let them grow on my property, but I also have some garden strawberries that I keep protected from the birds. I grow the garden strawberries in a raised bed that has a net cover over top, and there are tall blueberry plants in the bed as well. The strawberries basically just fill in the space that is left between the blueberry plants. My mentality is that I never want light to be hitting bare dirt, I always want it to hit leaves!
- Black Huckleberries (Gaylussacia baccata) – Huckleberries are a close relative of blueberries, and there are similarly many species that are commonly called huckleberries, even though some of them are not in the same genus as blueberries. The black huckleberry in common in North America, but is not in the Vaccinium genus like blueberries. Black huckleberries are edible raw and are used to make all sorts of things like pies, wine, jams, jellies, and syrups.
- Kiwi Berries (Actinidia arguta): Kiwi berries are a relative to the typical fuzzy kiwi that you can find in a grocery store, but kiwi berries are smaller and have a smooth outer skin. You can actually eat the kiwi berry whole, so some times it is referred to as a kiwi grape. It is a dioicous plant and therefore you need to have at least 1 “male” and 1 “female” plant to get fruit. It is also very cold hardy and is sometimes just called a cold hardy kiwi. There are also several named cultivars, so you can plant a bunch and see what works for you.
- Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon and Vaccinium oxycoccos) – The last of the vacciniums that I’m going to mention, but possibly my favorite. I love dried cranberries, though I detest the sugar and artificially sweetened craisins at the grocery store, though I have found Leancrans that have 50% less sugar than typical and don’t have artificial sweeteners like stevia. Anyway, I’m growing a variety of cranberry called Stevens Cranberry, which is the commercial variety. My only beef with growing cranberries is that they are short, only 8-10″ tall, so a significant yield will take a lot of land, which i don’t really have to spare. Luckily, I can grow them in some of the shadier regions of my food forest, so that should help, because it’s not that I don’t have much land, it’s really that I don’t have much land that is in full sun for growing food.
- Blackberries (Genus: Rubus and Subgenus Rubus) – Blackberries are easy growing, edible, and spread easily. Though most varieties have thorny canes and create a bramble patch that can be prickly to navigate, there are thornless varieties that have been bred. If you wear thick gloves and jeans while tending to your thorny blackberry patch, the thorns are really not that big of a deal, and people have been growing blackberries forever, so anecdotally, the juice is worth the squeeze. Raspberries, Tayberries, (a cross of raspberries and blackberries), Loganberries (another cross), and many other crosses are closely related (dewberry, boysenberry, youngberry, nessberry, and many other commercial cultivars). If you plan on growing blackberries, I suggest also growing raspberries to add some genetic diversity to your bramble patch.
- Raspberries (Genus: Rubus and Subgenus: Idaeobatus) – Raspberries are another important fruit for homesteaders because just like blackberries they produce fruit without too much effort. There are many commercial, naturalized, and native varieties of raspberries, so I’d suggest planting canes from a few different types native to your region and see what grows best. Biodiversity and genetic diversity are an important part of a food forest, so having multiple cultivars of the same type of berry on your homestead will not only lead to higher yields due to cross pollination, but will also improve the adaptability of the wild progeny of the foods that you grow.
- Grapes (Vitis vinifera and Vitis rotundifolia) – Grapes are widely cultivated for wine due to their high sugar content, and most vineyards grow a cultivar of the Vitis vinifera species which is native to the Mediterranean and Asia, while Vitis rotundifolia is known as the muscadine grape and is native to the Southeastern US. So, if you live in the Southeast US I’d suggest growing a muscadine cultivar that is disease, pest, and mildew resistant. I planted a unique grape vine in the fall called RazzMatazz which is the first continually fruit grape (and actually a hybrid of V. vinifera and V. rotundifolia !), so it should fruit throughout the growing season rather than having a huge flush of grapes at the end of the season. This probably isn’t great for making wine, but I plan to just eat the grapes. I think “seedless” grapes are the way to go – I just don’t like the tase of the seeds – but seedless grapes actually just have very small seeds.
- Currants (Genus: Ribes) – Currants (pronounced “currents”) are a fairly diverse genera of species, which also includes gooseberries and a cross of gooseberries and currants called Jostaberries. I’m planning to grow all 3. If you’re looking to grow Zante Currants and dry them like you can find in grocery stores, you’re searching in the wrong place. Zante currant are actually a small fruited cultivar of grape Vitis vinifera. Currants are widely cultivated in both the US and Europe, though more so in Europe, with many different colored berries. Black Currants are notably used to flavor alcoholic beverages, like Riga Black Balsams from Latvia.
- Elderberries (Genus: Sambucus) – Technically, elderberries aren’t edible berries because you can’t eat them raw, but their juice is delicious. As you may have guessed there are multiple different species in the Sambucus genus that are native to different regions of the world. Sambucus Canadensis is native to Eastern North America and is what I will be growing in my yard. There are also cultivars of Sambucus Canadensis that are higher yielding than the wild version, so I will probably have a mix of both. Elderberries are fairly easy to harvest due to the bunching of the berries on stems that can just be snipped off the plant. Elderberries are often used for wine, and it used to be an insult to say someone smelled of elderberries, meaning that they were drunk on elderberry wine. I think this needs to be brought back. There’s also elderberries that are native to Europe, like S. nigra and S. ebulus.
- Lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) – You’ll notice that lingonberries are in the same genus as blueberries and are closely related. There are many cultivars of lingonberries throughout the Northern Hemisphere as lingonberries are a cool to cold climate berry native to North America and Eurasia. Lingonberries are tart, similar to cranberries and though they can be eaten raw, they are typically made into a pie, a jam, or other sugary preserve. Ikea is probably the most prevalent association that most people in the US have with lingonberries, as a lingonberry jam is served with Swedish meatballs and gravy at the Ikea Food Court. It’s pretty good, but doesn’t hold a candle to the meatballs and lingonberry jam in Sweden (I’ve been to Sweden, Latvia, and France, so all my Europe related anecdotes are for those countries.)
- Serviceberries/Juneberries/Shadbush/Saskatoon Berries (Genus: Amelanchier) – I think Amelanchier is the most confusing genus of berries I have encountered because there is not a 1:1 mapping of common names to Latin names for each of the species in the genus. Reading about Amelanchier is akin to reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – everyone has some combination of a few different names that makes it really hard to follow. At least it was for me. Serviceberry was the first native berry tree that I planted about 2 years ago. I currently have 3 Serviceberry trees and I allowed the birds to eat the berries last year so hopefully more crop up this year. I also took some cuttings from those 3 trees and I’m attempting to propagate those cuttings. I think I’ll have a pretty solid crop of berries this year.
- Mulberries (Genus: Morus) – There’s 3 main species of mulberry – Morus alba, Morus nigra, and Morus rubra – white. black, and red mulberries, respectively. The fruits look very similar to raspberries and blackberries (and other aggregate fruits), but Mulberries are actually more closely related figs and jackfruit than they are to raspberries and blackberries! Which makes sense if you look at a mulberry tree vs. blackberry cane. The red mulberry is native to North America, so I’ve planted some seeds outside. However, the black mulberry apparently tastes much better that the red and white mulberries, so I also bought an everbearing black mulberry plant that will most likely stay as dwarf indoor tree. The white mulberry tree is native to Asia, and you might have heard of the book “Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree” by English writer Ernest Bramah, and it is also the host of silkworms, so it is vital for silk production.
- Sheepberries/Nannyberries (Viburnum lentago) – There’s only one species that is referred to as Nannyberry or Sheep Berry and it’s a Viburnum. The fruit is edible and the bark and leaves (along with those of related viburnums) are used by Native Americans for various medicinal purposes, including the prevention of miscarriages and helping menstrual cramps. There are a few Viburnums that are useful on a homestead, including the Highbush Cranberry (V. opulus var. americanum) and Raisinberry (V. cassinoides) and though I don’t have any of these viburnums yet, I plant to get all three to increase cross-pollination and subsequent fruit production.
- Highbush Cranberries (V. opulus var. americanum) – This viburnum is also known as Crampbark and is the viburnum that is used to make a tea for relieving menstrual cramps. This plant is not related to the cranberry mentioned earlier, but is very tart and red, so that why it is also named cranberry. The berries are not typically eaten raw, but they can be used to make jams and jellies, though apparently they can smell bad when being cooked. Though I plan on growing this viburnum, it is not high up on my list.
Edible Berries Are Not One Size Fits All
This is certainly not an exhaustive list of all the edible berries that are available for permasteading, and I do hope that you perform significant research before spending a bunch of money on plants that won’t grow well in your area. That being said, I think the best way to go about growing your food is to just start growing what you eat. My family eats a lot of blueberries and strawberries, so that’s what I started growing first, and then I moved on to native berries, like serviceberries, that though I haven’t tried before, they are supposed to be easy to grow, taste good, and if nothing else, they’ll feed the birds and bees.
What types of berries do you grow?