the blossom end. I tasted one, and the astringency in early September was extreme. I retasted about 3 weeks later, and found sweetness increasing slightly and the astringency fading ever-so-slightly. I picked all the fruit from one bush, gleaning about 5 quarts, which I made into jam (combined with frozen ripe gooseberries and a can of crushed pineapple, to give it better flavor). Another 3 weeks went by, and I decided to pick from a second bush. (There were 6 more, which I left for anyone who wanted them - nobody ever did, and they're still heavy with fruit in mid-December!) I dehydrated the berries this time, getting a quart jar full, which I gave to a friend who makes smoothies. They were still very astringent - these are definitely not berries you'd eat off the bush like blueberries or raspberries! However, they are very prolific and full of antioxidants. The fall color of the leaves is lovely, too - they blaze in shades of red, orange, and yellow. I have 3 small starts in my front yard that a rabbit cleaned of their leaves before anything else in my yard. Oh well - they'll come back bigger and better next spring! Two of the starts were from cuttings I took from the 'mother' bush I bought - they root very easily. Read LessRead less about This fall I discovered that a local