Minnesota honeyberries are bursting with flavor and possibilities

They're at home anywhere you'd use a blueberry.

June 22, 2022 at 10:00AM
Jason Amundsen grows honeyberries on his farm in Wrenshall, Minn., about 30 minutes from Duluth. (Provided)
Jason Amundsen grows honeyberries on his farm in Wrenshall, Minn., about 30 minutes from Duluth. (Provided/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Jason Amundsen has a vivid description for the honeyberry.

"It's like a blueberry that fell in love with a package of SweeTarts," he says with a laugh. "Some are sweet, some are sour and some are tart."

He would know. There are 11,000 honeyberry plants at his Wrenshall, Minn., farm, which is about a half-hour drive from downtown Duluth. He and his wife, Lucie Amundsen, have been welcoming a growing number of honeyberry enthusiasts for the past several years. The u-pick season starts in late June and lasts about three weeks.

The juicy, lozenge-shaped berries have ancestral ties to Siberia — no wonder they prosper in northern Minnesota — and they're delicious in muffins and pancakes, pies and preserves. Basically, anywhere a blueberry belongs.

Commercial food-and-drink purveyors have quickly embraced the honeyberry's memorable flavor and color properties. In Duluth, Farm Lola honeyberries have enhanced small batches of ice cream at Love Creamery and enriched a barrel-aged saison at Bent Paddle Brewing Co., and they've been the star attraction in a refreshing summer mead at White Bear Meadery in White Bear Lake.

"What's so much fun is that, depending upon the variety that's picked — and when it's picked — the taste is never quite the same," says Amundsen, who cultivates 13 honeyberry varieties. "It's why people come back, three and four times a season, and bring their friends."

Farm Lola, 852 Cemetery Road, Wrenshall, Minn., 218-203-5995, farmlola.com.

about the writer

Rick Nelson

Reporter

Rick Nelson joined the staff of the Star Tribune in 1998. He is a Twin Cities native, a University of Minnesota graduate and a James Beard Award winner. 

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