We have several varieties of blueberries, though they require an acid soil Our soil isn't acid, so we have them in containers that have been partially buried in the garden. That way we can control the soil pH better. These are really only a novelty crop for us to add a little variety.
We will plant strawberries this spring.
We have a few odd plants, too. We have highbush cranberries, which make a nice jelly. We have a couple bushes each of gooseberry, juneberry, and lingonberry.
We also grow several kinds of melons, which we write about in the vegetables section.
There are a large number of apple varieties that can be grown in Minnesota. Indeed, there are a good number of commercial orchards.
Our plantings include: Haralson, Wealthy, Duchess of Oldenburg, Dolgo, Honeygold, Honeycrisp, Zesta, and Prarie Spy. None of these have started to set fruit yet, but we are familiar with all but Zesta because my father grows them in his orchard. We plant only hardy varieties. The ones we have selected are chosen to provide both cooking and eating apples with staggared maturities and a variety of colors and flavors.
Duchess of Oldenburg is the first to mature in our area. Fruit begin to ripen August 7-14. It is a pie apple, for which purpose it is without peer. It retains its flavor and texture when cooked. The fruit are small, light green, with a reddish blush. These have been grown in America since 1835 and were grown in Russia long before that.
Zesta is a recently introduced early eating apple, of unusually high sweetness and crispness. This apple is a recent introduction from the experiment station in Excelsior.
Wealthy is an early eating apple. Grown since 1860, it was among the first introduced by the apple research farm in Excelsior that was later taken over by the University of Minnesota.
Honeycrisp is the recently introduced apple that has taken the apple world by storm. Commercial orchardists are cutting down old trees and replanting with this apple. It is sweet and has a unique, crisp texture even when fully ripe. Midseason. This apple was developed at Excelsior. The first trees were commercially available to orchardists in 1995. We planted ours in 1999.
Honeygold is a late cooking apple with a large, yellow fruit. It has better disease resistance than most other apples we have.
Prarie Spy is a large eating apple. The fruit are green with a slight red blush. Though not widely planted, they have been a favorite of mine since I was a child. This apple was introduced in 1940 from the experiment station in Excelsior.
Haralson is the late hardy apple by which all others are judged. The fruit are a deep red and keep until spring if held under the proper conditions of temperature and humidity. We have two of these trees, in part because they have a tendency to bear in alternate years. Introduced from Excelsior in 1923.
We have plantings two varieties of pie cherries - Northstar and Meteor. Both produce tart fruit that is ideal for pie, jam, or sauce. These trees are natural dwarfs. They have to be netted when the fruit ripens or the birds will eat every last one.
Apricots - Sungold and Moongold. These trees produce a nice crop of acceptable quality apricots once every few years. They bloom early in the spring making them prone to damage from late frosts, which is why they don't produce every year. They make good jam and sauce, and are OK to eat fresh.
We are growing a number of pears. They are hard to grow, here, and take a long time to get established and bear fruit. My father has only ever harvested a handful or two of pears. We're hoping we can do better. We have Parker and Patten and are expanding our plantings this year with the addition of Stacyville and Luscious.
Plums - Superior, Toka, Mt. Royal. I don't really like fresh plums all that well, but lots of people do, and we grow Superior for this purpose. The Toka are much smaller, and are good to eat too, but we grow them for jam. Their size and flavor make them excellent for jam.
Deer have been a problem in our orchard. They eat the young trees. We have constructed an eight foot high fence around the orchard at considerable expense.