Honeyberry Haven
Updated: Sep 26
Nestled on the outskirts of the St. Croix Valley near a small, college town in western Wisconsin, rows and rows of honeyberry bushes lie dormant on frost-covered fields. This is a place where farmland is sprawling, and all eyes are on spring. When the time is right, the temperatures will begin rising once again, making room for these hardy plants to bloom.
Gerry and his wife Jill Schoen (pronounced Shane) along with their daughter Scarlett are the faces behind Schoen Valley Orchard near River Falls, Wisconsin.
Black Hills Spruce trees are plentiful on this nearly 40-acre farm, located 30 minutes east of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Poplars, oaks and maple trees have found their home here as well. About five to six acres are dedicated to the family’s honeyberry fields, soon to be surrounded by apple trees, asparagus, cherries, chokeberries, elderberries, pears and hazelnut plants.
While the honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea) is a bit of a mystery to most consumers in the United States, cultures in northern Japan, northern China and eastern Russia have been harvesting them for centuries. Sometimes referred to as haskap or honeysuckle berry, the name haskap is said to have originated from the native Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan.
With its deep blue complexion, elongated shape and notable flavor that varies from sweet to tart, the honeyberry is often compared to the blueberry. This unique fruit receives praise for its ability to thrive in colder northern climates and adapt to a variety of soil conditions.
Gerry planted his first four honeyberry bushes in 2016. Since then, that number has grown to 1,200 and this past season his fields yielded approximately 2,500 pounds of fruit.
His patrons often rave about the honeyberries’ exceptional nutritional value.
“In Japan, they call it the fruit of long life. The fruit of good eyesight. I’ve had customers come in and they’ll pick 20-30 pounds of it at a time,” Gerry says.
From there, they tell him they make a honeyberry juice for the purpose of using it as a vitamin supplement.
Touted as an excellent source of vitamin C and A, a growing number of studies reveal that certain honeyberry cultivars contain more vitamin C than oranges, red currants, black elderberries and raspberries.
Due to its diverse content of phytochemicals, the fruit also shows promise with its anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. And, with less sugar content than blueberries, honeyberries may be a strong fit for a diabetic diet.
A word of caution, though, about picking the berries too early.
“I was like everybody else. Oh my gosh, they’re purple, they’re ready, and you put it in your mouth, and oh, I can’t get that out fast enough,” Gerry says.
A sour or very bitter tasting honeyberry indicates that it was picked prematurely from the plant. Once the berries develop a purple blush, Gerry says it typically takes about another month for them to fully ripen.
“Some have more tartness with a sweet end, some have more sweetness with a slightly tart end. Some are just so sweet they’re just like candy,” he says.
With a wide variety of cultivars available, honeyberries .are frequently compared to wine grapes. Amongst the ten varieties at Schoen Valley Orchard (Aurora, Boreal Beast, Boreal Beauty, Boreal Blizzard, Blue Banana, Honey Bee, Indigo Gem, Indigo Treat, Kawai and Keiko), Gerry says Aurora is the customer favorite.
“It’s big, it’s sweet and everybody that comes for u-pick wants it. From the standpoint of an orchardist, that’s my money crop for people to come and pick,” he says.
Meanwhile, Gerry describes 'Boreal Beauty' and 'Indigo Treat' as a little more on the tart side, and says some experts claim that Boreal Beast is the best tasting of all the honeyberry varieties.
Often at the mercy of Mother Nature, his resilience was tested during the summer of 2024, when unseasonably high rainfall paired with hot temperatures in June lead to his first-ever crop failure. It was a devastating loss for the orchard.
“Last year was 17 inches [of rain] in one week. And it got to 90 degrees right after that. [The honeyberries] just blew up. They were saturated, basically,” he says.
Fast forward to 2025, and as a more typical spring/summer weather pattern returned, Gerry reaped the benefits of a perfectly healthy honeyberry crop.
“There’s a lot of trial and error. Eight years in and a lot of books read and I’m still learning so much,” he says.
Keeping the critters out of his honeyberries can be another challenge. While the high fences around Schoen Valley Orchard are enough to discourage the deer, cedar waxwing birds dive in as soon as they see a purple blush. Gerry says they can be nearly impossible to manage if the netting doesn’t get out in time.
“I’ve made that mistake. I’ve sat out here with tears running down my face because two cedar waxwings showed up one day. I was not prepared and all the sudden I had hundreds of birds eating all my food,” he says.
He learned from that painful defeat and is now quick to put the nets out as soon as the honeyberries shifts from green to purple.
While Schoen Valley Orchard isn’t certified organic, Gerry says he avoids using chemicals at his farm. Instead, he focuses on regenerative practices, such as using the soil enriching plant, comfrey, to feed his crops.
“In a lot of circles, it’s called a chop-and-drop fertilizer. It was used before the advent of chemical fertilizers to get everything from potassium and calcium and nitrate up on the surface where it can be used more readily by your crop,” he says.
Backyard honeyberries
For anyone interested in experimenting with honeyberries in their own backyard, Gerry recommends finding a space with full sun to plant them in.
“They’re not fussy about soil. If you want to get consistent good fruit size, you need to irrigate or water. They can get dried out, but if you give them an inch a week, you’re going to get good berry size,” Gerry says.
Once the growing season ends and the berries fall off the plants, he says nutrition needs to be put back into the ground. From there, he focuses on keeping the weeds down and the grass low.
“I use foliar sprays. When the leaves are active and they’re still photosynthesizing, they are going to take that in and store that for next year,” Gerry says.
Come winter, he lets his plants rest but warns that even before the snow disappears the flowers can begin to bud.
If the temperature rises above freezing during the peak of the day, that means the honeyberry plants are shifting into spring mode. Once they start to set buds, a little pruning is needed, but don’t overdo it.
“Basically, what I do is I prune them up from the ground, so they’re a little bit easier to get under,” he says.
“It’s hard to mess it up in the spring, just let them do their thing. If you want good fruit set, add nutrients that aid reproductive growth. Then, it’s watching them size up. They start out like little green berries and then they just grow and grow and grow,” Gerry says.
Be gentle with the berries as they begin to ripen. Metal trays or baking dishes work well for collecting them.
“When you pick them, don’t stack them too high; they are kind of delicate. They will last for up to a week in the refrigerator. They’re basically like strawberries. If you treat them like strawberries [after picking], you’re going to be just fine,” he says.
Eventually Gerry plans to expand his operation so customers can purchase his homemade honeyberry jams and syrups. In the meantime, he and Jill are gearing up for another fruitful season-the orchard's you-pick season typically runs late June through early July.
The best way to eat honeyberries? Gerry says his family loves them best frozen. Simply store them in a freezer-friendly container and dig in. They taste like tiny berry-flavored popsicles and can be safely stored in the freezer for up to a year. Honeyberries make wonderful substitution for other berries in muffins, sweet breads, scones, desserts and more.
Photography credits:
Thank you to Tracy Walsh Photography for bringing her creative eye to this honeyberry haven! Photos 5, 6 and 10 belong to Blue Hues For You.
Note: This article originally appeared in the summer 2026 issue of Northern Gardener magazine published by the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. Subscribe at northerngardener.org
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