Country Enterprise: Growing and selling soft fruit for berries, juice, wine. Raspberries, Strawberries, Redcurrants, gooseberries, blackberries, blueberries

<H1>Rural diversification. Sell fruit as a rural business in the countryside</H1> <H3>Making money in the countryside </H3> <H4>Growing soft fruit - blackberry,blueberry,gooseberry,strawberry,raspberry,redcurrants</H4> <P> <A HREF=fruit1.htm >Growing soft fruits</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit2.htm >Growing soft fruits: raspberries</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit3.htm >Growing soft fruits: protection</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit4.htm >Selling soft fruit</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit5.htm >Growing and selling strawberries</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit6.htm >Looking after strawberry beds</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit7.htm >Growing blackcurrants</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit8.htm >Tending redcurrants</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit9.htm >Luscious gooseberries</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit10.htm >Juicy blackberries,loganberries</A><BR> <A HREF=fruit11.htm >Growing blueberries,bilberries</A></P> <P><A HREF=title.htm >Chapter headings</A></P> <P> Growing soft fruit is a traditional country occupation that has spread to suburban gardens and town allotments. <P/><P>Strawberries, raspberries and currants all taste of Summer and part of the joy of picking and stalking these fruits is the delicious juice that stains. Convert the fruit into jams and jellies and you have captured the flavour of Summer for the winter. <P/><P>Making preserves is another traditional country pursuit that has gone into urban kitchens. You can grow the fruit on an allotment, take it home and make jam that is quite indistinguishable from that made by the country dweller who simply walks up the garden. <P/><P>If you do not have plants that are already established and growing, you have one of two choices: you can either plant from scratch or you can bypass that bit and buy the fruit from a local market. Either way the aim is to put the finest available fruit into the preserving pan. Fine jelly is made from fine fruit. When you are picking the fruit it is always worth picking at the peak of perfection: there is no point in letting the plant work on to produce overripe fruit — that energy is put to better use producing another berry. </P><P> If you are fortunate enough to live in Scotland, you may well be able to pick these delicious fruits growing wild. </P><P>These wild berries have more flavour than the bigger, cultivated ones. However, if you do not live near such a delicious wild crop or would rather not trust that your competitors will not get there first, you must grow your own. </P><P>Raspberries need good drainage but prefer heavy soils in which to grow. They thrive on well rotted manure so put a good layer in the bottom of the trench in early autumn. It must be well rotted; many manures, especially pig manure, will scorch and kill roots if the manure is not sufficiently aged. The best time to plant the canes is in early Winter. If you have to leave it until the spring, the canes will need special coddling should the summer be a dry one.</P><P> Make sure that the canes are from a virus-free crop. Raspberries are especially susceptible to virus attack. Whole varieties have been wiped out by these attacks. Ask your supplier for a Ministry of Agriculture certificate to prove that the stocks are certified. The canes should be one year old. </P><P>If your site is well prepared and free from perennial weeds, the canes should establish themselves well and quickly. Cut the canes down to one foot in height in February. In May apply some good compost or well rotted manure all over the rows to a depth of one or two inches. Raspberries like being mulched as their roots are fibrous and shallow — they rarely reach down more than six inches. You can erect a trellis-type arrangement on to which the growing canes can be tied. Or you can put wires stretched horizontally either side of the canes: with this arrangement you do not have to tie the canes in as they lean on the wires. </P><P> It is possible to be picking raspberries through into the autumn if you plant some autumn-fruiting varieties. </P><P>In any case, whenever the fruits are ready the birds will be waiting. Birds seem to have a never-failing appetite for raspberries. Sometimes they strip the whole berry and at other times they simply steal one side, leaving odd-shaped half berries all over the canes. </P><P>You can either put up a cage that you can walk into to pick or you can drape the canes with net that you lift up when you are gathering. The most decorative and romantic rows of raspberries are those covered with old net curtains. The cream net floats on soft breezes, the deep reds and greens gleaming through. Funnily enough this kind of net is much easier to deal with than the specialist nets made for the job. The very fine net does not allow pieces of leaf and cane to poke through and catch the net. However, if you stick to the net curtains you may well be limiting the size of your rows — horticultural net is much cheaper to buy. You can either put up a cage that you can walk into to pick or you can drape the canes with net that you lift up when you are gathering. </P> </P><P> Whether you aim to sell raspberries fresh or to process them, you should aim to pick and dispose of them very quickly. </P><P>Raspberries do not keep at all well when fresh. Put into little plastic punnets for resale, the bottom layers immediately start to produce juice and within hours can go mouldy. The best answer is to pick early in the morning and to deliver them first thing to the retailer, giving him all day to sell the punnets. </P><P>It is when they have to stay overnight that problems really set in. 'Pick your own' is a very established way of selling soft fruit. </P><P>The advantages are that you do not have to pay and look after the labour picking your fruit; the disadvantages are that the public is often unaware of the damage that children and careless adults can do to a crop. Also if you employ the labour, you can specify that all the ripe fruit on a cane must be picked; casual picking leaves ripe fruit to go mouldy and contaminate others. </P><P>If you do allow 'pick your own', then you must check that the plants are being kept in good shape at the end of the day. If you limit the access to a few rows rather than the whole crop you will get better picking, but no-one wants to feel that they are having to struggle to find enough, so you have to strike a natural balance. </P><P> Summer would not be summer without strawberries and cream.</P><P> You can choose from giant, fist-sized berries down to the tiny Alpine strawberry. Strawberries can grow in herbaceous borders or in special beds — their low ground covering habit can make them suitable in a low-maintenance garden — and the trailing varieties look stunning on patios and terraces. You can grow them in tall, hollow pillars — cascades of green with succulent red fruits. </P><P>With plenty of manure, the obliging fruit produces pounds of berries from a single plant. We grow Alpine strawberries as path edgings. One Alpine strawberry, then a lemon balm plant and so on. (The smell of lemon in the evening is beautiful and as it is a herb, it is also a crop.) The Alpine strawberries produce right through the summer and in sheltered spots you can even find the odd berry in winter. Like raspberries, the strawberry is a favourite with the birds, although at least some of the fruits are hidden under the spreading leaves. </P><P> To start a strawberry bed, dig in plenty of manure. </P><P>All these soft fruits require food and water to perform to their best ability. Strawberries usually increase by runners. Runners are the little plants that they send out which root into the ground and start to grow on their own. As strawberries are naturally woodland plants, you can make them feel really at home by applying plenty of leafmould. </P><P>If you can plant the new plants in August, you will get an excellent crop next year. When your plants have flowered, apply straw or polythene as a mulch. This keeps the fruit off the ground. Netting will keep the birds off. </P><P>If you decide to grow Alpine strawberries, the simplest way is to buy them from a nurseryman as little plants. However, seeds planted in March will fruit the same year and they are clearly much cheaper. By selecting different varieties, you can pick strawberries well into the autumn. If you are selling the fruit into the retail trade, make sure that the berries are quite dry before putting them into punnets. Wet fruit rots quickly. We live in a strawberry-producing area and the shops are empty after a shower of rain. </P><P>Strawberry jam is traditional with scones and cream. It is delicious if well made and always sells well. When you work out the costings on producing jam from your strawberries, make sure that you are not turning your produce into jam when you would obtain a far higher price for the strawberries by selling them direct. </P><P>If your strawberries are ready before or after the general crop, you will receive a considerable boost in retail price. </P><P> Blackcurrants are the highest yielders of Vitamin C among home-grown fruits. </P><P>Many acres of blackcurrants are sold on contract to the producers of blackcurrant drinks. Blackcurrant jam must be well made or the currants are tough. It has been used traditionally to soothe sore throats and as a cold remedy. It does not sell in anything like the quantity of strawberry or raspberry jam. The fresh fruit does not sell in such quantity either through retail outlets. In fact, it is often not stocked very widely when in season and it may well be worth advertising to bring in custom. </P><P>There are new varieties that look like large blackcurrants available now. They taste of very little when eaten raw but when made into jam, they taste of blackcurrants. It is worth checking with the supplier of your plants what the varieties you are considering were bred for: these new varieties, which are heavy-yielding plants, would be ideal if you are intending to make jam but they would not bring a repeat order from a customer who eats them raw.</P><P> There are two major enemies of blackcurrants: big bud mite and reversion. If your plants do not fall prey to these, they may well fruit on happily for some thirty years. Plant new bushes during the winter, as early as possible. A mulch applied around them in May will protect the roots which are very near to the surface. They dislike being weeded. </P><P>Blackcurrants are produced on wood that grew the previous year so pruning must aim to cut out as much old wood as possible and to keep the required wood in a reasonable shape for harvesting. Many rows of blackcurrants are now harvested by machine. It has become popular to encourage a 'pick your own' trade to clear the bushes after the machines have passed as they often miss branches and sometimes whole plants. This kind of 'pick your own' will probably have a limited life as very few customers enjoy walking along endless clear rows to find the occasional loaded bush.</P><P> There is obviously more interest in picking fruits such as strawberries and raspberries that can be instantly consumed. However, often the clients for 'pick your own' currants are more knowledgeable than those who pick their own strawberries and raspberries. As the pickers may well appreciate what they are doing, it is worth considering 'pick your own' for currants even if you decide against it for the other fruits because of possible damage. </P><P> For redcurrants, and for yellow and white currants, the aim in pruning is not the same as when working on blackcurrants because these currants fruit on old wood. </P><P>You can grow them as bushes or even train them against a wall or fence as a cordon. They are best planted in November. Cover the surrounding soil with straw — up to one foot deep — directly after planting. The shape to aim for when pruning is an open goblet. </P><P>Birds are even more cunning with their consumption of these currants. They actually consume the flower buds if allowed to. Tying black thread between the branches helps or the bushes can be put into a fruit cage. When the fruit is ready, pick the whole sprig. </P><P>Although the market for these currants is rather more specialist, it is there. Certainly if you make redcurrant jelly, it will sell very well in the weeks approaching Christmas. If the fruits are for retail sale, then as long as they are dry when picked they will keep fairly well.</P><P> If you are intending to make jam from any of the currant family, you will be faced with the time-consuming chore of removing the currants from their strigs. Freeze them, put them into a tin and shake furiously. The stalks and currants will separate, making the job much easier. There is no difference in the jam you make. If you freeze the currants on open trays they take hardly any time at all. Of course, if you are intending to make jelly then you can leave the currants on their strigs — it will not make any difference to the final result. </P><P>Usually we put the remainder of currants left after straining them to make jelly into apple chutney. For this we have to go back to strigging the currants. </P><P> Gooseberries are the first of the soft fruits mentioned that actually fight back when you pick them. </P><P>The other fruits may well leave stained fingers as proof of consumption but the humble gooseberry actually inflicts wounds. It is worth bearing in mind from the outset that if the plant is encouraged to grow openly you will have a much easier task at harvest. </P><P>As mildew is a problem in low-growing bushes, select ones that are growing on a short piece of trunk. Plant it so that the stem is above the ground. Gooseberries like being planted in November but will survive if planted with care any time up until February. Cover the surrounding soil with straw to a depth of one foot in May. The first berries will appear around Whitsun. If you pick the biggest of the berries then the other ones will have more room to grow and receive more nourishment. </P><P>With really large dessert varieties, the berries must be allowed plenty of room. The most delicious of all the gooseberries are the giant deep red ones, just at the point of bursting with sweet juice. </P><P>Gooseberry jam for some reason is rarely a fast seller. Although it is quite delicious as is gooseberry curd, this like all the curds does not keep well and can only really be sold to delicatessens, smothered in 'sell by' dates. The aggravation is probably not worth it. Making for your own consumption certainly is. It can, of course, make your reputation if you are selling cream teas. A plate of fresh scones, a bowl of home-made clotted cream and small pots of lemon, orange and gooseberry curd — Mmmmmm. </P><P>Taking the gooseberry into catering for lunches or buffets leads to gooseberry pies, gooseberry sauce with fresh mackerel and possibly glazing the top of small round raised pies with a thin layer of bright green gooseberry jelly. </P><P> Blackberries are another fruit that can fight back. </P><P>With some varieties the thorns are bred out, but somehow some of the flavour seems to be lost, too. Blackberries are excellent to grow up fences and walls. Even one plant will produce excellent fruit as blackberries are self-fertile. They are best planted in November but can take being moved as late as March. </P><P>Cut the plant down to nine inches above the ground and arrange whatever form of support you prefer. You can train pairs of fruit to grow over trellis over a garden path. The thornless varieties are certainly worth considering for this type of location. You can, of course, use the thorns to your advantage by planting them to cut off a route for marauding cats or similar nuisances. </P><P>Blackberries are very attractive plants to watch growing. They always seem to have first flowers, then tiny green berries, followed by larger green berries and then varying sizes of black ones — this progression starts in late August and goes through well into October. </P><P>This obliging plant will happily produce more of itself if you poke the end of a growing shoot into the ground. Do this in late summer and by November you can sever the new plant from its parent and move it. </P><P>The biggest berries can be sold as dessert fruit. The rest of the crop can be processed into jams, pies, chutneys and wines. You can even dry the young leaves of the blackberry to make a sort of tea. </P> <P> To be quite different, why not grow the great American favourite: blueberries?</P><P> The plants are in fact related to our native blueberry and, like their wild ancestor, like a peaty soil. As they are very ornamental, they can be grown in a herbaceous border or as part of a decorative plan in the soft fruit area. </P><P>Dig plenty of peat into the ground before planting and, for once, do not apply manure. Blueberries berries fruit on the tip of the last season's growth so the aim in pruning is to remove old stems and encourage the fruiting ones. They are quite hardy and disease-free. Apply a general fertiliser in March and when harvest-time comes, be prepared to go repeatedly over the bush removing fruit as it ripens. </P><P>As there are few blueberries cultivated in Britain, you may find the simplest market is to put them into punnets and sell them to retailers. They also make excellent jam and as our American cousins claim, excellent pies. They go extremely well with cheesecake. </P>