One way of thinking of your terms, "minor/unusual" could be taken to mean not commonly grown, if that is what you mean you could include the very old varieties of the commonly grown fruits apple, peach, plum, etc.. In this country, very few people grow the "vintage/heritage" apple varieties nor or they are they even aware their existance I suspect. Other than that, how about Satsuma tangerines in your area, I think they are the most cold hardy of the citrus fruits so you might be able to baby them through the Winter with some extra work.

Here is a link that might be useful: U of FL link on Satsumas

From your list I'm growing the Hardy Kiwi. I've found them a couple times in Whole Foods and they were very tasty(but pricey- partially due to the store I'm sure). They were around grape size and had lots of flavor, but were still quite sweet.

I planted 5 this spring-
Issai (dwarf, semi-self fertile)
Fortyniner
Ken's Red
Geneva
74-32 (nale pollinator)

The Issai bloomed soon after planting and set 1 fruit without pollination (something ate it was almost ripe).

Earlier this year, a co-worked planted a Chinese Haw. She remembers them fondly from her childhood. She said they are very tart/flavorful- maybe I'll get to try some in a while.

If you like cooking, Cornelian Cherry makes excellent preserves, jams and sauces to go with meat. Absolutely delicious. Very few "major" fruits can come even close.
Olga

Maybe in a few years I can tell you how my Che, Kiwi and Goumi did. Although Goumi is supposed to be a lot like Autumn Olive, as per my supplier.
Dan

I find kiwis to be fun forage food but not something I bother harvesting to bring inside- but this is all so subjective, others love them.

I like Illinois Everbearing mulberries a lot and my Sunflower paw paw is quite good- I know they aren't on your list For preserves there's nothing I like more than black currents- also for running raw fruit through the blender and strainer and mixing with fresh apple juice for pure ambrosia.

I concur with HM that, of all minor fruits, mulberries are the most valuable. Combination of no-spray, no care, adaptability to soil and climate, abundant and reasonably early harvest, ease of harvest, taste, nutrition, and being ripe at a time when little else is available. My aronia may not get enough sun to become fully sweetened, and when it is the squirrels get them (they get mulberries too, but there are so many more). My kiwis took 11 years to start fruiting. And where are chestnuts? I would put them in first or second place easily. Properly stored, they give you food through the winter.

I forgot to mention that Kousa DW fruit is pretty insipid. I have them for ornament but only eat a few of the fruit.

Thanks for the responses...

I didn't include pawpaws and a few others that I've already made up my mind on: they're wonderful, but unfortunately I've not had success with them here.

I agree with the take on mulberries. Hopefully in a few years I'll be harvesting several varieties in quantity.

Also, I'd like to try growing che (never tasted it though) sometime in the future.

From your list, I grow Aronia, goumi, and hardy kiwi.

Aronia is easy to grow, and makes a good crop. The only problem is they get infested with lace bugs, which makes the leaves get little brown spots everywhere they've been pierced....strictly an asthetic problem. If I hose off the bush a couple times during the summer, that takes care of them. Fresh, the berries taste awful. I've left them on until they start to dry up, sampling them every few days so I'm sure it's not a ripeness issue. I really like the jelly I've made form them though.

Goumi is also easy to grow, no pest or disease whatsoever. The bush is productive, but the fruit are astringent until they re quite ripe, and the birds won't wait that long. I've netted it in the past, and the ripe fruit are tasty, but tedious to eat. I made jelly once, and it was OK, but no characteristic flavor.

Hardy kiwi is a real winner, but it takes some work to give it something to grow on, and to keep it pruned to a manageable structure. Mine have been in the ground three seasons after growing in a pot a couple years, and I got the first fruit this year. I haven't had to do much pruning yet, as I'm still training it to its main structure, but I can see that I soon will. No pests...there were some brown spots on the fruit, but they were completely superficial. Anyone who likes fuzzy kiwis will like these.

I've eaten kousa dogwood fruits, just from ornamental selections. They're OK, but the texture is not appealing, and they're tedious to eat. Flavor is sweet but otherwise nondescript.

Alex

I haven't liked several of my hardy kiwis, they have too much "green" as in green bean type flavor in them. Geneva 3, Ananasnaya, and Michigan State are ones in that class. This year I finally got one that is a 100% winner, Ken's Red. It simply tastes great. The fuzzy kiwis, assuming you have a hardy enough variety and long enough summer, are all great. I don't know if they will work in NM.

The rest of the items on your list I elected not to grow, excepting medlars (search "just say no to medlars" here for my opinions on them :-)) and Chinese haw (which got bad rust and the deer chewed to death so I never got to taste them).

Scott

This far south we can grow mayhaws which are attractive flowering shrubs or small trees with red fruit that is eatable (barely) out-of-hand but makes outstanding jelly.

Some selections get rust (?) fungus on the fruits but others need no care at all.

We also have some larger-fruiting loquats.

I am also trying a lot of whats on your list in my garden. It will be a while before I get to taste test them though.

I have tasted other people's Cornus mas - Cornelian Cherry and loved the flavor (works best to pick and let sit for a week). I'm not crazy about hardy kiwi's but they work well added to smoothies. I'm lucky that the wild Maypop I grow has great flavor (some don't). If the weather is nice and rains are frequent then it puts on a bumper crop of very large fruit which also work well blended with other fruit juices.

Keep in mind that a lot of stuff that may not be all that special in the beginning tend to grow on you over time. There is something about the convenience of nibbling while you work in the garden.

I saw Autumn Olive's in the OGW catalog and wondered about them.Are the berries sweet?
When I was at OGW this fall,I tried Cornelian Cherry gelato and juice and it was delicious and picked a few off one of the trees that was growing there and they were good too.I'm going to have to try to make some room,I think two trees are needed.
I'm not sure why I've stayed away from Currants.Maybe because I had some dried and they didn't grab me,but I may grow some now and try them fresh.Thanks,Brady

Autumn olive's taste is best described as sweet-tart. They are surprisingly good even from the wild, with fibrous seeds that you can chew with the berries and then spit out. They are very nutritious (very high in C and Lycopene) and make a great jelly.

Cultivated currants are well... very tart. They are not to be eaten fresh, but do make nice preserves and stuff. But I've fallen in love with the native Golden Currant (Ribes aureum) which is a much tougher, larger, more productive plant where I live, and produces far superior fruit. It's principally grown as an ornamental, being covered with yellow flowers in spring, and there are no cultivars selected for their fruit quality that I'm aware of.

Well, Cornelian Cherry is beginning to grab my interest. Now I just have to see how it will do here. Thanks again for the posts.

We eat both red and black curants fresh - they need to be perfectly ripe and are good with yoghurt or icecream. All time favourite is shortbread topped with redcurrants. Maybe we have better varieties available or they suit our climate here.

When I was young I enjoyed red currants from my grandmother's yard, so they can be tasty on our side of the Atlantic.

Now, I've planted a number of varieties of red, white, and black currants. Since the plants are young, most haven't produced much yet and I've had to race the birds for the few berries. I admit that when not fully ripe, they aren't quite as nice- a bit tart and the flavor wasn't great on some of the white ones (though they survived the birds with less losses). I'm reserving judgment on the varieties until I can get a larger sample.

I love black currents a lot, both fresh and in preserves. Red/white currents were my favorites when I was a kid. Now they are too sour for me. I don't consider currents to be "minor" fruit, so didn't include them in my original answer. To me they are mainstream, for sure.
Olga

I picked up a Cornelian Cherry today.It is loaded with buds for next year.Apparently I was mistaken when saying two were needed.The nursery person said it will fruit on it's own and I checked in past posts on gardenweb.Some people were having trouble with fruiting and then someone posted that the scientific name,Cornus Mas means Male Dogwood,and when they are young they produce male flowers,which change to perfect ones as they mature.That makes me happy,as planting space is getting less.Brady

I'm enjoying the conversation regarding currants... I just knew some folks would stick up for eating them fresh. I also have eaten them fresh, mostly as a kid, and I still appreciate them enough to have planted a few red currant bushes along with the gooseberries and native golden currants in my garden. It seems that Ribes are making a comeback in this country recently, but they are still discouraged or restricted in many areas due to the white pine blister rust quarantine.

Aronia good for juice, easy to grow
Azarole
Chinese Haw
Cornelian Cherry
Goumi easy to grow, I like them...my two don't give me great production, though
Japanese Raisin Tree looking at this one myself.
Medlar
Mountain Ash planted shipova, no fruit yet
Honeyberry would like them, I want the U of Sask varieties though...not the ones at OGW
Hardy Kiwi really like these, wish I was better at pruning for fruit
Silver Vine Kiwi
Maypop I like these a lot, but mine don't propertly ripen most years.
Schisandra/Magnolia/Strawberry Vine got the self-fertile one, its in a shady area (which its supposed to tolerate). I've gotten 3 berries in 4 years.
Kousa Dogwood I've had them and wouldn't go out of my way to plant and then wait for one to fruit again.

Che - planted 5 years ago. Still waiting for fruit.
Seaberries: sound great. I can't seem to get them established, though.

Currently I'm debating whether I want the finger lime plants in the OGW catalog....

~Chills

Chills, what hardy kiwi varieties do you have? I love Kens Red but not the others, but I did not have enough samples of my Anansnaya or Michigan State to be sure.

Scott

Braddybb, based on the information I have, you need two Cornelian Cherry plans to have good production. I was told by the owner of Whitman Farms you can plant two varieties in the same whole, if the space is limited and you want a good crop. So this is how I grow my Cornelian Cherries. By the way, WF has great selection of Cornelian Cherry varieties.

Olga

olga,here is a link to the conversations about Cornelian Cherry not fruiting.Some people reported getting an abundance of fruit with only one plant.I think I'll wait and see.
I probably won't plant two in the same hole.These shrubs can get big!I read somewhere that even as as hedge,the distance apart should be about twelve feet.Mine is in a big container now.Brady

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornelian Cherry won't Cherry

I have my two varieties in the same hole. So far, so good. Time will tell. I don't have space to plant them separately anyway :( and I have to control their size with prunning. If I had more space, I would plant them separately, no question about it.
Olga

Hi, I've been lurking for years here, but have only been active on other forums. I've greatly enjoyed reading all the tree forums, but it appears most of the active members are from the Northern parts, with drastically different growing environments.

I'll second Loquats as a worthwhile crop for warmer locations. My 3 trees were planted by squirrels many years ago on the the down slope of a canal bank in my backyard. They now stand 15-18 ft high and produce many hundreds of golden yellow fruit. Very tasty if ripe, but very tart if not and the squirrels don't leave a very big window of opportunity. They can clean out the whole crop over night it seems some years.

I've never had to water, fertilize, prune, spray for insects or disease and they produce abundantly. I wish my citrus were as easy.

Cornelian cherry: Tart, high vitamin C, great for colds and flu. Try it, you might not like it.
Kiwi!!!male and female. Hard to establish, very rewarding and easy.
American Persimmon: Try only named varieties, male and female, one of my favorite fruits. Check to see if it will ripen in your area. Can graft.
Also try pie cherries, which are not the same as sweet cherries.
I like medlar. Well worth growing. Tastes like applesauce. Ripens in Nov. here. Pest/disease free.
John S
PDX OR

Thanks for more ideas skyjs. I think I've given up on kiwi precisely because of it's difficulty establishing, especially in my arid climate, but have high hopes for the Am persimmon (I also love the taste).

I'm starting to wonder more about medlar. I guess I need to find someplace to taste these things before I decide on a few more unusual species to plant.

I had lots of pest problems on my medlars, they were much worse than apples for fireblight and codling moth. If they were trouble free I would say they are OK, the fruit is nice but there is very little in each fruit and its a lot of work to get out.

Scott

Loquat tops the "unusual but worthwhile" list for me, but needs z8 or warmer. Loquats bear an excellent fruit, are very productive, trouble free, and are evergreen. Loquats are a commercial crop in asia. Illinois Everbearing mulberry is a winner. Che is very tasty but not as attractive or productive as figs, which it's harvest season mirrors. Kiwis seem to be hard to succeed with for many people including me.

Yeah, I always loved the loquats I ate from the tree in San Diego. Unfortunately I can't grow them outside here.

If che is anything like it's relative the mulberry, then I will love it. Incidentally, the two varieties of fig I've tried here, Black Mission and Brown Turkey, have never borne fruit, and they are killed back every winter so they're not that attractive either.

Che is not at all like it's mulberry relative, other than that it's a trouble free plant. I got mine from ediblelandscaping.com. The fruit is appealing enough and prolific, but is not a main crop type of deal. More like a way to add variety to your harvest.

It's interesting to note the differences in each region. We don't have fireblight here, but we do have wet Springs that promote scab and peach leaf curl. Our advice really has to be just our experience with our climate.

Medlar is trouble free here, but Loquat is not. Loquat gets a lot of scab here. It is neither productive nor trouble free here at all. I'm trying to grow it, but it's challenging, and it often doesn't fruit due to wet Falls and Springs when it is trying to flower and fruit, respectively.
John S
PDX OR

Medlar is completely problem free for me too - except for the problem of what to do with a load of fruit I don't really like much. We also have wet springs - and summers - and autumns - and winters. Peaches are a nightmare. The only effective way to avoid curl is chemicals or building rain proof shelters over the trees. Or growing them in cold greenhouses.

Did anybody mention Huckleberry yet?

Chinese Haw grow wild here in S.C.
We use the tender leaves for herb tea.
The apples(fruit) are good for jelly & raw.
The wild fruit are smaller then your plant will produce.

I planted an Evergreen Huckleberry last month.I guess they grow wild in the Pacific Northwest,but haven't seen them.The Red Huckleberry is fairly common east of Seattle where I live.They have more of a dark pinkish,somewhat tart fruit and are suppose to be high in antioxidants.Brady

How about this one: pyracantha. Few people realize that it's edible. The berries are small but they make a wonderful jelly.

Pyracantha is a wonderful flowering plant.
Some years ago Mother Earth News had a recipe for the jelly.
Can you print your recipe it for us.

I didn't see any comments on the azarole, so I thought I'd add to the discussion. I have a tree I planted 4 years ago, so it's fruited for at least a couple years already. I'm glad I got it. They're fairly small and seedy, but I think the taste is quite good, definitely fit for eating straight/fresh IMO. I'd think of it as more of an edible ornamental plant than a fruit tree (mainly because of the small fruit size), but I'd rate it very highly if that's what you're looking for.

My own hardy kiwis are still in pots -- got them last year -- but I ate about a dozen from some completely neglected vines in an old abandoned orchard the year before last, and I thought they were the best fruit I had ever tried. I have heard a lot of stories about the vines being difficult to manage in terms of achieving good pollination and pruning, and maybe spring frosts on young vines, too.

Aronia is on the top of my list. It is more productive, a dream to harvest, and has the highest ORAC value of any North American fruit. I got used to eating it raw with whipping cream or yogurt sweetened with Stevia, but usually cook it, in which case it tastes fine.

Blueberries would be second for taste, health, still can't hold a candle to Aronia for productivity. There are many varieties that can give you a continuous harvest from June until frost. Evergreen varieties are very good and slightly different flavor.

Hardy Kiwi in the PNW ripens so late it is frequently after frost or snow. It seems to not agree with me either.

Azarole doesn't seem to ripen at all. Cornus mas has had no fruit. Mulberries can't hold a candle to Aronia for quantity here, I probably would get less than a quart in a season, though the taste is nice raw, though not very good cooked. Currants can't compare to Aronia either for ease of picking, or productivity, though the taste of black currants is superior. Red currants don't have very good taste to me though they are better mixed with blackberries cooked. Shisandra needs a pollinator, more medicinal than grown for taste. Goumis are rather astringent so not very good even raw, have very large seeds that make processing cooked fruit difficult.

Tastes vary, this is just my opinion.:-P

Here is a link that might be useful: Aronia, blueberries

I'm a big fan of maypops. They're not quite as flavorful as commercial passion fruit, but they're vigorous and generally trouble-free. The only pest you have to worry about are helliconia butterfly caterpillars, and many people grow them specifically to attract them. Plus the flowers are unearthly. Check out the passiflora forum here if you want more information than you could ever process!

Here is a link that might be useful: Passiflora forum

I planted 12 maypops along a ditchbank last year and I hope they come back strongly this year. They were seedlings from a plant with reasonably good production and fruit and one hopes that one or more will be pretty good. I hope to located sources of even more promising plants.

Thanks hemnancy,your plug for Aronia has me seriously interested in getting one.Brady

My favorites are the Goumi and the Medlar.
Medlar is a striking ornamental tree, and the Goumi has the largest fruit of the Eleagaceaa types. It is also a smaller plant.

My wife made a delicious aronia-blueberry pie last week. Flavor was more substantial than blueberry and not quite as sweet. Perfect. I've heard they are used in cider as the bitter/tannin flavor. I like them in juice, mixed with OJ.

Hardy kiwis ripen here in Portland every year for months, completely trouble free once established. Productive, starting about the first of September in some years, later others.

Goumi and Autumn olive are both productive, yummy, and full of antioxidants. Easy too.
John S
PDX OR

Sorry Scott...

I've got Ken's Red, Anansnaya and Jumbo. (I've also got the fuzzy one that is supposed to be hardier than Hayward, but its still potted as well as a few orange seedlings). Ken's and Anna are the only ones I've gotten fruit off of so far. I love the Anna's dead ripe, even fermenting.

Ken's are good, but production has been shy for me thus far.

I don't pick a kiwi until they are wrinkling or easily squishy. I just wish I was better at pruning for production. I got about 50 pounds a few years back, but only about 1-2 each of the last couple years. (I've got 5 producing females and 3 males)

~Chills

Will Anansnaya male plants fertilize Ken's Red or does it require a male of its own variety?
Dan

Dan, there is no Anansnaya male, the males have their own variety names. I have 74-46 and Smith 2. One male should do them all.

Thanks for the info Chills. I have had the same problem on my Kens Red, it only started fruiting last summer after nine years and it didn't fruit much then. I agree about picking the hardy kiwis at the wrinkling stage. I liked the green varieties myself at that stage but they were not popular at all with my family. The large fuzzy kiwis like Hayward have a similar flavor but it is about 10x more concentrated in the little ones and is an acquired taste I think.

Scott

I have and tasted the following fruits from the list:

Aronia: Productive, bit too tart to eat fresh. wonderful to add it into juice. Plant is easy to grow.

Chinese Haw: Sweet ,but not too sweet. little tart and sour. The source tasted like cranberry source we use in the Christman dinner. Very popular in China, although the fruit size is a lot bigger. Street vendors string a dozens of them on a long wooden or bamboo stick and coat them with sugar to sale to the kids as snack.

Goumi: sweet-tart. My has small fruit, about pea size. Can be eaten fresh. The flower is sweet, pleasant. The plants is easy to grow.

Japanese Raisin Tree: Tree itself can grow very tallll. The fruit is very sweet, but not pure sweet like sugar. Its sweetness has some other taste in it. I can't descrip the undertone taste . When we talk about the sweetness of the plants, for example, Stevia's leaves is very sweet but many people do not like the undertone taste.

I vote mulberry the #1 favorite minor berry. The tree is easy to grow, the fruit is abundant, and fruit is sweet and juicy. It tastes better than raspberry, backberry or, other commercially grow berries.
For people who are lucky in the south, Loquat is a good choice too. The tree is about 10-15' tall, the fruit is a bit smaller in a size of pingpong ball. When it is ripe, it is sweet and juicy.

I have current grow in my yard. balck, red, and white. They can be eaten fresh but not particular good taste. It is better to juice them and mix them with other sweeter fruit juice.

Another minor berry I like to grow is gooseberry. Pick Poorman. The fruit is balanced sweet and tart, very flavorful. It definately can be eaten fresh.