Perennial Food Plants

American Hazelnut

When we moved to our current home, we felt lucky that the previous owner had done some nice landscape design and had planted a huge variety of plants for birds and pollinators. Amongst the tasty food for the birds and bees (and everything else) was also a wide range of medicinal plants and some edibles for us humans. Every year we add more fruit, food, and medicine and now have an incredible abundance. Last night I was listing all of the fruit and nuts we planted in the six years we’ve been here and I was surprised at how long the list was! Here is a sampling:

Perennial food plants we’ve added

Prairie Red Plum 
Trollhaugen Grape
Jostaberry
Peach, dwarf Reliance
Aronia Nero
Raspberry Shortcake 
Raspberry Fall Gold
Raspberry Jewel Black
Raspberry Heritage
Apple, Macintosh 
Apple, CandyCrisp 
Elderberry, York
Elderberry, Nova
Elderberry (another variety I currently can’t remember the name of)
Rosa rugosa
Nannyberry
Nanking Cherry
Gloire des Sablons Pink Currant
Consort Black Currant (ick, tastes like burning rubber)
Hinnomaki Yellow Gooseberry
Pixwell Gooseberry
Borealis Canadian Haskap (honey berry)
Tundra Canadian Haskap (honey berry)
Hazelnut
Pawpaw
Hawthorn, American

Add to that the things that were already here:

Serviceberry
Alpine Strawberry (very tasty small berries)
Wild Black Raspberry (also very tasty)
Black Cherry (update 2023: we finally had fruit, pretty bad tasting!)
Mayapple
Wild Black Currants (some really good ones I need to find in our woods and propagate)
Gooseberry (Wild?)

This fall and next spring we will be propagating a wide range of these plants to expand our own food forest, and may be able to offer any extras to friends or neighbors who are interested.