We planted two honeyberry bushes last spring (Blue Sea and Blue Velvet), and a few berries showed up on each last month.  I waited with baited breath as the first one turned pink and then purple, then I waited yet a little longer since I've heard that honeyberries are best when eaten very ripe.  At long last, it was time for a taste test.

The conclusion?  Half of a tiny honeyberry is too small of a morsel to register on your tastebuds.  Drat!  I guess I'll have to wait until next year for a real flavor sampling.  In the meantime, though, I can write about how honeyberries live up to other claims by nurseries and by garden writers.

The main reason I planted honeyberries is because I'd read that the fruits ripen up before strawberries in the spring.  This appears to be false on our farm --- we ate our first strawberries a few days before our honeyberry.  On the other hand, our honeyberry bushes are planted closer to the hillside, meaning the ground there is colder in the spring and the plants might grow more slowly than they would have if planted in a more sunny location.  If a taste test next year suggest the species is worth committing to, I'll try out some more bushes in a warmer spot --- honeyberries are just rebranded honeysuckles (Lonicera caerulea), so they should be easy to propagate

Honeyberries did better in the second claim department --- that they grow well in shade.  The area where our bushes are growing is on the shady side of our blueberry patch, so they get about six hours of shade at the summer solstice.  Despite the lack of sun, the bushes are doing great and are fruiting already (albeit lightly), so the species definitely does fit into those difficult-to-harvest-from shady areas.

I'd be curious to hear from others who have eaten more than half of a honeyberry.  What do you think of the flavor?  And do honeyberries ripen up before strawberries in your neck of the woods?