Minnesota honeyberries are bursting with flavor and possibilities

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.