OFRE: Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton

The haskap has been feeding people for longer than Edmonton has existed.

Indigenous peoples across the boreal forest, from what we now call Saskatchewan to Hokkaido in Japan to Siberia, have harvested wild haskaps (also called honeyberries) for centuries.

The Ainu people of northern Japan call them "haskap," meaning "berry of long life and good vision."

That name stuck.

The modern cultivated haskap is a more recent story.

In the 1990s, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan began breeding wild haskap varieties into productive, garden-friendly cultivars. The result: a berry uniquely suited to prairie conditions, drawing on thousands of years of natural selection in cold-climate ecosystems.

When you plant a haskap bush in Edmonton, you're growing something with deep roots in this part of the world.

That's part of what makes them so well-suited to our climate. Unlike blueberries, which were bred for very different conditions, haskaps already know how to thrive in the boreal. They didn't need to be redesigned. They just needed to be invited into our gardens.

This is the kind of food sovereignty that builds resilience: growing what naturally belongs here

Join us for a haskap farm field trip July 11th. We visit the Rosy Farms haskap U-pick farm with a guided tour from the owner Andrew Rosychuk.

We provide the transportation, you bring your interest.

There's a berry growing in Edmonton that outperforms blueberries, raspberries, and saskatoons, and most people have never tasted one.

👉 Meet the haskap. Hardy to -45°C.

✅Produces fruit by year three (in my case, year 2 easily).
✅Doesn't need acidic soil.
✅Doesn't need protection from frost.
✅Doesn't need much of anything, really, except a second bush nearby for pollination.

Haskaps are one of the best-kept secrets in prairie gardening, and we'd like to fix that.

A single mature bush can produce 5-10 pounds of berries per season. They taste like a cross between a blueberry and a raspberry, with a tart edge that makes them spectacular in jams, baking, and savoury sauces. Birds love them. So do kids. So will you.

If you've been waiting for the right time to plant something productive in your yard, haskaps are it. They're available at most Edmonton garden centres in spring. Plant two different varieties for pollination, water them through their first summer, and then mostly leave them alone.

Come join us on a tour of a working haskap farm on July 11th.

👉 https://operationfruitrescue.org/events/haskap-farm-field-trip/

Anyone in the OFRE community growing haskaps? Tell us how they're doing.

Haskap Farm Field Trip: Tour Alberta's Only Organic Haskap Orchard A guided day trip to Rosy Farms, Alberta's first and only certified organic haskap orchard, featuring regenerative agriculture tours and fresh U-pick with

Movie Night: Ethical foraging movie hosted by the Edmonton Permaculture Guild. The film features Denis Denis Manzer who will be in attendance, along with the filmmaker Kimberly Gray. It's free, but RSVP at the eventbrite link provided.

Free Registration with Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-food-beneath-our-feet-a-wonderful-film-on-ethical-foraging-tickets-1982146221707?aff=oddtdtcreator

Haskaps are Edmonton's berry.
While the rest of Canada fusses over blueberries, we have something better growing right here in Zone 3.

Haskaps (also called honeyberries) were developed at the University of Saskatchewan specifically for prairie conditions.

They shrug off -45°C winters, fruit reliably in our short summers, and produce earlier than almost anything else in the garden.

They taste like a blueberry that has opinions. Tart, deep, a little wild. Pancakes will never be the same.

If you've ever struggled to grow blueberries in Edmonton (and most of us have), haskaps are the answer your soil has been waiting for. They thrive in our slightly alkaline ground, need almost no babying, and start producing fruit within two to three years of planting.

Join OFRE and Sakaw Gardens on a tour of a working u-pick haskap farm July 11.

Are you growing haskaps? Interested in growing haskaps? Is haskaps supposed to be capitalized? All good questions.

The Western Thistles will be playing at Idylwylde Community Leagues seed swap event. We'll be there too - swing by our table to learn about our summer season of educational events and workshops.

Find us at the Idylwylde Community League's 15th annual seed swapping event this Saturday (details below). We're excited to be a part of this celebration. Learn a few tips to up your gardening game, enjoy some music from the Western Thistles and some delicious refreshments.