Hands up anyone who has enjoyed the delights of Boysenberry Jam...... Hmm, not many hands in sight so I will explain.

A few years ago we spent a month in New Zealand and stumbled our way into the little town of Geraldine on South Island, and as we were wandering around we came across a shop entirely devoted to jam. Heaven!  It turned out that the shop was the retail outlet for Barkers, one of the largest jam makers in the Antipodes, and they had flavours availabe for taste. 

Well, I tried several which were very good, and then I came across Boysenberry Jam. It's not every day I come across a new fruit, so I tried it and loved its Raspberry / Blackberry taste - but have never seen it for sale in the northern hemisphere.

Roll forward a couple of years and I spied a nice south facing bit of fence in our garden. I did my research and found that the spot would suit drought resistant Boysenberries very well. Three plants duly arrived from my favourite specialist fruit grower in Norfolk (Chris Bowers of Kings Lynn) and these have been planted ready for the spring growing season.

Boysenberries, it turns out are a cross between Raspberry, Blackberry, Dewberry and Loganberry, which accounts for their complicated by lovely flavour. But don't go putting in any advance orders just yet - they will take a couple of years to reach maturity so you will just have to wait, or go to Geraldine yourself!