Northeast Gardening: Edibles - '09 - Part 2, 1 by bbrookrd

bbrookrd wrote:
I have planted a couple of other interesting berry plants. One is Viburnum edule or mooseberry. It survived it's first winter after being gnawed on by the rabbits. Now caged and regrowing. It will be a few years before jelly. Patti

From my journal notes

Quoting: Forest farm. 2 for 17.90 Highbush cranberry is an erect to straggly shrub that grows to 8' and is native to the northern US, Alaska, and Canada. The white flowers are in small, flattened clusters up to 1" wide. Red or orange fruits form clusters of from 2 to 5 fruits each. The fruits are hard and sour and become soft and mildly acidic after exposure to autumn freezes. They are used to make very good preserves. The fall foliage is crimson red.

Highbush cranberry is found in moist forests and forest edges, thickets, rocky slopes stream banks, river terraces, and rocky shorelines.

Positive Weezingreens On Sep 14, 2002, Weezingreens from Seward, AK
(Zone 3b) wrote:

High-bush cranberry is a common sight throughout most of Alaska. While the lower leaves have three lobes, similar to a maple, the upper leaves are elliptical. The leaves burnish red in the fall. Small white clusters of flowers are followed by clusters of red berries in late summer or early fall. The soft, sour, red berries have a large seed and exude a strange odor. They can be used for syrups and jellies.

These 2-8'shrubs of NW forests might be "overlooked until autumn, when they declare their presence w crimson-purple lvs & brilliantly scarlet fruit...yielding a tart but pleasing jelly"(L.J.Clark). Psh/Med