Rossnaree
Well-Known Member
Unless there are other keywords to use in the search (honeyberry, honey berry, honeyberries, honey berries and various deliberate misspellings in order to catch the odd typo), I found nothing. Even a Google search only found a few appropriate topics, the closest being a thread on the winepress forum from 2006 with a few replies from Jack Keller stating that he hadn't heard of any wines made from them, and was trying to research the chemical properties of the berry. Also, on his wine recipe site, the only "honeyberry" reference is for a local name given to hackberries (I wouldn't draw that comparison to hackberries! They're an elm, anyhow).
Aside from all of the other nicknames of "honeyberry" given to various local species, what I'm referring to is the Lonicera kamchatika, or the "real" honeyberry. The information on this plant is everywhere and easy to find, so I won't waste space by going over it here; what I'm looking for is how to make wine from it and I can't find a thing. It's NOT the same as most other berries. It ripens about 2 weeks ahead of strawberries, and my friends about an hour or so north of here have several plants. They're not, as I said, like other berries, not even blueberries to which they're most frequently compared. I've only eaten them (they live up to their name!) fresh and in jelly that my friends made (1 half-pint jar, did NOT last long!!!). I didn't have any sort of testing equipment with me, not even a hydrometer. I've got plans in the works to get them growing here, though.
So, --- anybody? I wasn't able to find anything on this site. I know there'd be some potential problems, such as temperature control since the hottest part of the year would be coming on shortly after the wine would be racked to secondary, but what else?
Anyways, I'm looking forward to next spring when maybe I can get my hands on enough berries to try making some wine from them.
Thanks in advance.
- Tim
Aside from all of the other nicknames of "honeyberry" given to various local species, what I'm referring to is the Lonicera kamchatika, or the "real" honeyberry. The information on this plant is everywhere and easy to find, so I won't waste space by going over it here; what I'm looking for is how to make wine from it and I can't find a thing. It's NOT the same as most other berries. It ripens about 2 weeks ahead of strawberries, and my friends about an hour or so north of here have several plants. They're not, as I said, like other berries, not even blueberries to which they're most frequently compared. I've only eaten them (they live up to their name!) fresh and in jelly that my friends made (1 half-pint jar, did NOT last long!!!). I didn't have any sort of testing equipment with me, not even a hydrometer. I've got plans in the works to get them growing here, though.
So, --- anybody? I wasn't able to find anything on this site. I know there'd be some potential problems, such as temperature control since the hottest part of the year would be coming on shortly after the wine would be racked to secondary, but what else?
Anyways, I'm looking forward to next spring when maybe I can get my hands on enough berries to try making some wine from them.
Thanks in advance.
- Tim