Selfsufficientish.com

Do you have fresh fruit in your garden right now ?
Southern hemisphere ishers are disqualified from answering this

I have a Myrtle bush or Chilean Guava (Myrtus Ugni) and it is a wonderful thing to have. Unfortunately it is also one of those plants that can only take a few degrees of frost. You can read more about it at ... http://transitionculture.org/2006/01/31 ... rtus-ugni/
I'm not sure when other peoples Myrtles fruit but mine has a very long fruiting season. It flowers continuously with small scented bell shaped flowers from mid summer until mid winter with ripe fruit and flowers on the branches at the same time from September onwards. The photo I took today shows that it is still producing ripe fruit and very tasty fruit it is too. It's a job to describe the taste but I would say it's a like a slightly resinous strawberry with blackcurrant undertones. Certainly very flavourful unlike some of the other "alternative" fruits.
If you live in an area where heavy frosts are rare I would recommend getting one for your garden, even if it's only so you can boast that you have fresh fruit in your garden in January

Show Off!

I've never heard of that but it looks very pretty and sounds very tasty!

Do you cook or preserve the fruit or just eat it straight off the bush?

Am dead jealous, I don't even have a garden at the moment!

well i never i truly didnt know that you could eat the fruit of the myrtle,and as i live in kerry do you think it would grow here too?i was given a 40 euro voucher from my dd to spend in the garden centre local to me,and that would be something to spend it on

Not really answering your question.......

I don't yet have one but there is a variety of lemon tree that will survive -5*C, a friend of mine in kent has one and it fruits. I think she said she bought via the guardian website.

Being at 1000m means i don't have much going on right now, but of course oranges and mandarins also abundant at this time of year so getting lots of freebies from friends down in the valley.

Myrtle is interesting - how hardy is it? And what kind of summer temperatures will it withstand do you think?

Loobyloo wrote:Do you cook or preserve the fruit or just eat it straight off the bush?

You can certainly eat them fresh, that's what I mainly do ... grab half a dozen every time I pass the bush.
You can also cook them, they are nice cooked with stewed apple and also good cooked in buns .. a bit like blueberry muffins.

Shell, unless you live up Carrantuohill (sp ?), I'm sure they would grow very well in Kerry ... see the link about Muckross.
But beware, there are 2 sorts of Myrtle ... the sort that grows wild around us here is Myrtus Communis and is not the edible one, but any garden centre should have one.

Clara .. not sure how much frost it can withstand, mine has never had a frost.

I'd like one of those, but I'm not sure where I'd put it.