The haskap (edible blue honeysuckle, honeyberry) is blooming at the community garden – and the bees couldn’t be happier!
Apparently, they were so happy they couldn’t stay in one place long enough for me to capture at least one with a clear photo, so my pic is bee-less.
While rummaging around in the freezer the other day I came across a bag of frozen haskap berries I had somehow forgotten about. (You might recall that my hubby and I went out and picked haskap berries at a u-pick farm last July – you can see photos of the berries and shrubs here). I couldn’t have such treasure just sitting there any longer, so I took them out and made a crisp. Haskap berries freeze beautifully and they really don’t lose any of that wonderful tangy freshness (they taste sort of like a combination of raspberries and blueberries). If you ever get a chance to try them, don’t hesitate – I have a feeling you’ll be an instant fan.
Here is the crisp recipe – if you don’t have haskap berries, use blueberries. Better still, use wild blueberries. YUM!
Haskap Berry Pear Crisp
Ingredients:
2 cups haskap berries, fresh or frozen and thawed
2 ripe pears, peeled, cored, sliced into small chunks
1 tbsp. cornstarch
4 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Topping:
1 1/4 cup oatmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, diced
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 9″ casserole dish. In a bowl, mix haskap berries, pears, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Pour into the bottom of the prepared casserole dish.
In another bowl, mix the oatmeal, whole wheat flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add the butter and mix with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly and coarse. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit base in the casserole dish, covering it completely.
Bake for 45 minutes until the top is bubbly and golden brown. Remove and cool slightly. You can serve this either warm or cold. While I didn’t add anything, a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream would be amazing!
Have you ever eaten haskap berries? Do you grow them or blueberries in your garden?
Flowery Prose 
Wild blueberries in Alberta? Would you share where?
I have haskap as well in my yard…they’ve bloomed, and are beginning to form berries!
The only place I’ve ever found wild blueberries growing is in the northern part of the province, near Fort Assiniboine. I was just thinking, though – saskatoons would be a great substitute in this recipe as well.
Glad to hear you’re growing haskap! Which cultivars do you have?
Never heard of these berries before. How very interesting!
They are really delicious. They are a bit difficult to pick because they burst easily – they’re so full of juice! The shrubs love a cold climate garden – they actually need a fairly long period of winter dormancy to survive and thrive.
Haskap berries…never heard of them, but your description sure sounds wonderful Sheryl!
They’re definitely worth a try if you can find them someday! Very versatile in baking. Apparently they make a nice fruit wine, as well, but I haven’t tried it yet.
I have never heard of haskap berries before – perhaps they don’t grow in the UK. I do grow blueberries but only a few in pots as they need an acid soil which I don’t have. Ripening blueberries are so beautiful though that I get a lot of pleasure watching them from flower to fruit even if the crop is small. Your recipe sounds good – I will have to try it with supermarket blueberries for now.
I’m not sure if they grow there – they really do like a cold climate. Planting blueberries in pots is an excellent idea – as you say, you can control the soil pH a bit more than if they were in the ground.
The crisp recipe will work nicely with supermarket blueberries! I’ve made it that way before, too. 🙂
No Haskap berries here, but I do like wild blueberries if I can get them at the market (very rarely available!). They don’t grow near us, but there are some wild raspberry bushes nearby. The fruit tastes wonderful but always ripens just as the first mosquitoes are hatching, so we rarely pick more than a few!
Oh – wild raspberries are the best! Sometimes when we’re out hiking we come across a few and we just have to sample. There’s nothing like them! Hopefully you won’t have a huge mosquito problem this year and can get out and pick some without being molested. 🙂
The plant looks just like our winter flowering honeysuckle. I didn’ t know that there is a honeysuckle with edible berries. How intriguing. Do you know the Latin name? I would love to find out if we have it here.
The Latin name is Lonicera caerulea – in the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan, there has been an extensive breeding program for these fruiting shrubs for many years now and they are now fairly easy to obtain at nurseries here. If you do happen to track them down there, please let me know – I’m curious as well!
I am hoping my blueberry bush will produce fruit this year. The addition of pears in your crisp would make the dish extra delicious.
We have a tricky time growing blueberries in Alberta – the soil is too alkaline here in the south, for one, but it’s more because of our climate. They don’t overwinter very well – although there are a few varieties that fare better than others. It’s too bad, as they are so delicious! I hope your blueberry provides fruit this year – then you can make a crisp…. 🙂
Yes, fruit this season or it may be ‘toast’.
I’ve never even heard of these berries and now I’m dying to try them!
They are absolutely delicious! Tart and sweet all at the same time. They are incredibly juicy.
I’ve never heard of them but we grow blueberries. Looks delicious.
I wish we could grow blueberries here with some consistency! It would be nice to eat some that aren’t from a supermarket.
I’ve heard of them as honey berries, but never seen or sampled them. I agree with Chloris in that they look very much like our winter honeysuckle. I do grow blueberries, though – 3 different types grown in pots, to fruit at different times.
Yes, honeyberries are one and the same, and there are quite a few new varieties available.
That’s a great idea to grow different cultivars of blueberries in pots to stagger the fruiting times – I really like that!
I have never tried haskap berries, we do have lots of wild blueberries here but we need to get them before the bears eat them 🙂
That’s heavy duty competition! 🙂
Lonicera Caerulea is the latin name
They are an extemely tasty fruit. Haskap is the Japanese name for the fruit. Eddible blue honeysuckle and honey berries are other names. They are totally unrelated to blueberries. They have a raspberry / black currant taste. The seeds are more like a tomatoe or Kiwi and the berry is very juice
Thanks for your comment, Paul! Glad you’ve added that bit about the soft seeds – I had forgotten to mention the texture!
never heard of or seen haskap berries but it sounds delicious! And yes, jum, crisp, I eat that for breakfast, lunch and dinner. happy to hear about your joyful bees!
Mmm…fruit crisp for every meal, I think I could really go for that! 🙂 I’m delighted to see so many bees so far this year…that seems like a good sign!
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who had not heard of these berries!
Your photo is beautiful with the plant captured in the sun, and that crisp looks yummy!
Sounds like this is a Canadian berry – what an interesting shape! Looks delicious and I guess I could substitute blueberries… I like your photo with the bumblebee – I keep trying to get my own picture but no luck so far 🙂
We live on an acerage south of Calgary and have had Honeyberries for 5 or 6 years. This year we harvested over 13 lbs of berries off 4 bushes. We have discovered you need to cover your bushes from the birds, or the robins will have them cleaned off in 24 hrs.
Looks very special