Perennial, Productive Plants for High Country Desserts

Here is a link to some info to some info from UofI including lists of what trees, grapes, blackberries, etc. grow well in high country deserts.

Here is some info I got from a friend on some perhaps less traditional options:

The elderberries grow well, but they need to be watered about as much as your grass, they are supposed to be medicinal as far as antiviral stuff goes. 

Sea berries are pretty exciting they are supposed to taste somewhere between a mix of orange juice and peach juice - tart though need some sugar. they also have all sorts of omega fatty acids and anti oxidants in them. 

Goji berries are more of a vine once they get going they are supposed to do well. I'm waiting to see if mine come back this year. 

The saskatoon blue berries are about the most exciting they look and taste like blueberries, but unlike normal blue berries they grow really well in our alkaline soil. Mine are still fairly small but are heavy producers. 

You could also look at black walnuts - they are supposed to have all the essential amino acids in them Same as an egg, but easier to store). English walnuts also grow well around here - both black walnuts and english walnuts needs some kind of shelter the first couple of years like a fence or something to keep the wind off them. I planted mine out in the open and they die each winter and then come back each spring so they never get very big. My neighbor down the road has some nice english walnuts in her yard - it's a little more sheltered.

plums are also nice to get started, just for the change.

Choke cherries also grow well once they are established - make a good syrup. My neighbor down the road has a bunch. She also grows a lot of rasberries - she says she never has the birds eat any of her rasberries because they are always so busy fighting over the chokecherries. she never gets many chokecherries but birds will rob everything off most of the other plants so they would be worth it just as the decoy.

These are some of the edible plants they say we can grow around here. I put the link to burnt ridge nursery under the plant and then the link to wikipedia because it tells a lot about each plant.

elderberry
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=41&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_nigra

sea berry
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=43&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae_rhamnoides

goji berry or wolf berry
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=36&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycium_barbarum

serviceberry or saskatoon blueberry - will grow well in alkaline soil
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=35&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier_alnifolia

Good Luck!!!

Ben