Experiments in Botany: Goji Berries

The Goji is a Himalayan bush, like so many of the ornamentals imported over the past hundred years or so.  The local birds have not discovered the berries, or don't like them.  I have found a couple of individual berries that looked bitten, but I never see birds around the bushes.  That's good news on the invasive species front, but bad news on the wildlife front, because birds can't feed their babies the insects that they would harvest off a native.  The only bugs I've ever seen on them have been ants.

My bushes started blooming in June, and I picked the first fruits on July 2nd.  They are still going strong.  This picture of a blossom is from Wikipedia.  The rest are all my photos from my yard.

I bought two different varieties over two years.  I have a total of of six of them.  You can see that they have a droopy sort of habit, where the tips of the flexible branches bend back towards the ground.  They may take root like a raspberry briar would; I'm not sure.  They are mulched with pine needles to discourage the Bermuda grass, but it's still a constant battle.  The broadleaf plants at the base of the one in the foreground are wild violets.

The berries start out orange and turn red as they ripen.  The picture is not quite clear enough to see that the tiny purplish leaflets at the join between stem and berry start to peel back and dry out when they are really ready (that's my interpretation, anyway).  On this variety the berries are a little more rounded, and on the other, more elongated.  You can see that they do have thorns, but I have found them much easier to avoid than those of a raspberry, for instance.

Fresh, I like to eat them with honey, flax seeds, and plain yogurt.  Sometimes I add them to Cheerios.  They are sweetish, but the stronger flavor is medicinal, I presume because of the crazy levels of antioxidants.  I like them, but for some more sensitive palates they might be an acquired taste.

I can't keep up with the production, so I've been drying them.  The screens on my food dehydrator are not fine enough to hold these small berries, so I have been drying small batches on the tray the manufacturer recommends for liquids (such as making fruit leather out of applesauce).  Sometimes I add a rack of Sungold cherry tomatoes above them.  At 135-140 degrees, they dry in 12-18 hours.

Here is a close-up of the finished product, which leaves a little bit of gooey sugary residue on the tray.  So far I have only added them to Raisin Bran.  When it gets colder I'll experiment with oatmeal and possibly baked goods like muffins.

Thanks for reading!