Honeyberry trellises (and a bonus recipe)

Last week, I told you about how we mulched the slope where our honeyberry bushes are planted. That took a fair amount of effort, but when it was finished, our work still wasn't done. We also needed to cover the bushes themselves with netting to protect our berries from hungry birds. In the past, we've simply thrown the nets over the bushes, which keeps out the birds all right, but also makes it very difficult for us to get underneath the nets and harvest the berries. This year, I wanted to put up some proper enclosures that we could climb into without having to remove the netting entirely.

We had various odds and ends of material to work with for this project—a few scavenged bamboo poles and some old pieces of PVC pipe that had formerly served as trellises for our garden before we built the wooden ones. However, Brian and I had a difference of opinion about the best way to use them. His idea was to build boxes to fit over the bushes with netting on all sides.That would have made very secure enclosures that were also easy to put on and take off again, but they would have taken a lot of work to build, as well as a lot of material. 

My suggestion was to build a little teepee over each bush instead, using three poles tied together at the top, with the netting draped over it. This wouldn't be as secure as a box, but it would require less material and less effort. This idea won out mainly because Brian realized that if he built boxes, he'd have to find a place to store them in the off-season. Our garden shed barely had room to store all the mulch we'd bought at the Co-Op; we'd never be able to fit the frames and a load of mulch in there at the same time. The teepees, by contrast, could be broken down once the harvest was over and stowed away in a corner.

After a little experimentation, Brian figured out a way to build a teepee from three lengths of the PVC pipe that would stand up pretty well on the slope, with one foot planted behind the bush and two at the bottom. He used a hacksaw to cut the pieces to the appropriate length and lashed them together with a section of our old clothesline. Then we loosely draped the netting over it. We held it down at the corners by planting the feet on top of it and added a brick in front to keep it from blowing open.

We only had enough of the PVC pipe to build two of these teepees, so we placed those over the two largest bushes. We wrapped two others in our remaining netting and left the smallest one uncovered, figuring that there weren't that many berries on it to lose. As the bushes get bigger, we can always acquire more pipe, or perhaps some sturdier bamboo poles, to build enclosures for them.

So far, these little tents appear to be doing their job pretty well. I can easily remove the brick and duck under the netting to harvest berries, and I only have to stoop a little bit. And there are always berries to harvest, which suggests that the teepees are succeeding in keeping the birds out. Mind you, the two bushes that are simply draped with netting have their share of berries as well, so it appears the tents aren't actually necessary to keep the birds out. But they certainly do make it easier to get at the berries. We easily gathered a cup of them that first day, and we're getting at least a couple of handfuls every time we go out for more.

We were so pleased with our honeyberry harvest that we decided to celebrate by making a honeyberry fool, something I'd been hoping to do ever since we first got the bushes (mainly because I find the phrase "honeyberry fool" so entertaining). We had to go out and buy some cream for this, since all our attempts at making dairy-free whipped cream have been so-so at best. We didn't have a recipe for it as such, so Brian had to guess at the proportions of fruit to sugar to cream. His first attempt, using twice as much fruit as cream, came out a bit too liquid, though still quite edible. But we had plenty of cream left after that, so he kept experimenting and found that combining equal parts fruit and cream produced a dessert with just the right fluffy texture while still delivering plenty of honeyberry flavor. For anyone who has honeyberries at home and would like to try it, here's the recipe:

HONEYBERRY FOOL

Add 2 Tbsp granulated sugar to ½ cup honeyberries and mash berries with a spoon while mixing. Place in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, stirring/mashing occasionally.

In a chilled bowl, add 2 Tbsp powdered sugar and ¼ tsp vanilla extract to ½ cup heavy whipping cream, then beat until soft peaks form. Fold in berry mixture until fully combined.

Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.