The Long Island Seed Project

Garden Huckleberry, Burbank's Sunberry and other obscure Solanaceae: an update

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Contents

Garden Huckleberry
Burbank's Sunberry and Chichiquelite
Jalomata procumbens




Revised August, 2007

Garden Huckleberry

Now, in August,  the Garden Huckleberry has become a much branching plant with a spread of nearly a meter.  Each plant produces large numbers of glossy berries (they do not seem to become dull as they mature as I have read), certainly enough to make a pie, if that is what you want.  I've been snacking on these berries (raw) for several weeks (in the interest of science) and I finally decided to have a small bowlful the other day.  I can now tell you that in spite of good digestion, I thought I would be ill.  I can't help but feel uneasy about eating these rather tasteless, maybe even distasteful to many folks, seedy berries.  Even with sugar, there is nothing positive that I can say about the flavor of the Garden Huckleberry.  Solanum nigrum is after all black nightshade.  On Long Island we can still harvest REAL huckleberries and blueberries (highbush and lowbush) in the woods and although it seems to take a lot longer to fill those containers with fresh berries from the woods, I opt for those over this weedy garden plant any day.  E-mail me your recipes, convince me that I'm wrong about this plant!




Sunberry and Chichiquelite aka Miltomate Vallisto

After wondering why Luther Burbank ever bothered with developing the Sunberry which is considered to be Garden Huckleberry by some, I understand the motivation.  Burbank was raised on a small farm in Massachusetts and was part of a large family.  He undoubtedly ate his share of blueberry pie made from foraged berries in season.  I can tell you from personal experience, blueberry season is a cherished childhood memory if you live in a location where blueberries grow wild.  Moving to the desert-like Santa Rosa, California might have left him longing for a substitute.  Did he find it.  I think so.  The Mexican Chichiquelite (Miltomate Vallisto) is another variation of black nightshade but it is slightly sweet and juicy.  I've been eating more than a few of these bright glossy berries raw with sugar and without.  They are tiny, smaller than Garden Huckleberry but what a difference in flavor.  They are not blueberries nor huckleberries but they're not terrible like Garden Huckleberry.  Working with this naturalized plant (originally from Africa) and other black nightshades, I believe that he was able to develop hybrids that produced very pleasant fruit.

I believe that these Chichiquelite could (even without breeding effort) cook up into something very nice and something Burbank wouldn't mind attaching his name to.  The Sunberry which I am also studying in the garden and which is the hybrid that Burbank is associated with,  has a very similar taste to the Chichiquelite.  The berries are also small but dull.  The low growing Sunberry hides it's berries well under the foliage and are a bit more difficult to harvest.  Both the Sunberry and Chichiquelite are very rich in anthocyanin (the purple pignment in the berries) and may have useful antioxidant properties (my hunch is that they exceed the content in blueberries).  I believe that the Garden Huckleberry that I grew from Murvon Seeds in the 1950's was actually Burbank's Sunberry and not the weedy Garden Huckleberry with the distasteful berries.  But it is not the the Sunberry that is marketed today and is also not the Chichiquelite I am growing.  Murvon's Sunberry was different.  It had very large clusters of dull blue to black berries intermediate in size borne on small upright plants.  How readily does the Chichiquelite, the Sunberry variation I am growing and Garden Huckleberry cross?  They may indeed be just three of the variations of an extremely diverse species with a large gene pool.  Burbank's greatest ability was in his eye for selection.  Could it be that his selection has crossed over the decades with others losing it's unique character?  Perhaps next year I will be able to shed more light on all of this.


Jaltomata procumbens

A bit later than the other Solanaceae "Huckleberry Wannabe's",  Jaltomata is producing well during the hot August days.  The fruit drops easily from their green calyx when ripe.  You might recall that this berry is being viewed by some as a potential new crop.  The flavor of grape and tomato.  I don't think so.


While not as objectionable as the Garden Huckleberry, the raw fruit of Jaltomata is most like one of the worse winter supermarket tomatoes you have ever eaten.  Those that lack any flavor.  No sweetness, no tartness.  Cardboard-like.  On top of that, there is the annoying grittiness of the multitude of tiny seeds inside each fruit.  The berries are about the same size as Garden Huckleberry.

Last Modified:  August, 2007