Great Escape Farms

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Great Escape Farms

Great Escape Farms is a unique edible plant nursery growing and selling trees and bushes. Great Escape Farms also has podcast and YouTube channel.

The farm uses regenerative practices and offers farm tours and classes on regenerative practices and homesteading. Great Escape Farms is a farm located in Romney, WV that propagates plants and sells them through Great Escape Nursery. Great Escape Farms is also a website that regularly posts blogs articles on unique edible plants, permaculture techniques, homesteading, and other garden related topi

cs. Great Escape Farms and Great Escape Nursery is owned and operated by Todd McCree. Todd is an experienced gardener, having gardened and landscaped since the early 80’s. In the mid 80s he worked for a garden center and did a little commercial landscaping. Although he is an engineer by education and primary job, he gardened at his residences in the 90’s and 2000’s. In 2012, he and his wife bought a 10-acre parcel of property in West Virginia that had 42 mature fruit trees on it. He got busy planting additional trees and putting in a food forest. This property, now called Great Escape Farms, has over 500 edible plants on it. In the past few years he has worked part time on other farms, taken several permaculture design courses and plant propagation courses and has regularly been propagating his own plants since 2013. Todd opened Great Escape Farms and Great Escape Nursery in 2015 and sold his first plants online in 2016

06/03/2026

Our Last Market!!!!!

On Saturday June 6th Great Escape Farms will be at Charles Town Farmers Market at 100 S. Samuel St in downtown Charles Town from 9AM to noon. This will be our last time at the Charles Town Market for 2026.

What would you like for us to bring? Here is a list of what we still have at least one plant in stock as of this writing. Pick from the list and email or text us. Some items have very limited quantity.
Akebia Vine
American Hazelnut
American Persimmon
Grafted Persimmon (several varieties)
American Plum
Anise Hyssop
Aronia
American Beautyberry
Wild Black Cherry
Blackberry
Black Walnut
Blueberry
Catnip
Che Tree (Several varieties grafted)
Chinese Artichoke
Chinese Chestnut
Cornus Mas (Cornelian Cherry)
Elderberry
Fig Trees
Flowering Quince
Ginkgo Biloba
Goji Berry
Goumi Berry
Green Fuki
Hardy Citrus
Hardy Kiwi
Honeyberry
Hybrid American Chestnut
Jerusalem Artichoke
Korean Bush Cherry
Kousa Dogwood
Lemon Balm
Maypop Passion Fruit Vine
Mint – Spearmint, Peppermint
Nanking Bush Cherry
Nasturtiums Variegated (annual)
Pawpaw Seeds
Pawpaw Trees
Perennial Leek
Raspberry
Red Mulberry
Schisandra (5-flavor fruit)
Sea Berry (Sea Buckthorn)
Sea Kale
Serviceberry (June Berry)
Siberian Pea Shrub
Stinging Nettle
Sweet Potato Slips
Washington Hawthorn

If you need to contact us, email us at [email protected] or text us at 443-255-4331. We are a fully licensed nursery and offer a 1-year plant replacement guarantee.

Charles Town Farmers Market, WV

05/29/2026

MORE PAWPAWs!!!!!

On Saturday May 30th Great Escape Farms will be at Charles Town Farmers Market at 100 S. Samuel St in downtown Charles Town from 9AM to noon. We are bringing Pawpaw trees and select pawpaw seeds for sale (with instructions) if you want to try growing from seed. Other plants we’ll be bringing include sweet potato starts/slips, Shisandra vine, Goumi bush, Honeyberry, wild Plum Trees, wild Black Cherry Trees, grafted Che Tree, American Hybrid Chestnut Trees, Blackberry, Sea Kale, and Anise Hyssop.

Pawpaw trees are native to this area and are North Americas largest native fruit with a taste that is sometimes described as a cross between a mango and banana. We offer 2nd year seedlings in 14” tree pots giving plenty of room for the long taproot on pawpaws. Pawpaws require two trees to cross pollinate.

Sweet Potato Slips – Our sweet potato slips were planted into soil several weeks ago giving them a well rooted plant that is ready to take off and provide you with a lot of fall and winter sweet potatoes. We have both Beauregard (vining) and Vardamin (bush) varieties. We also have some Beauregard sweet potato slips a little cheaper that are not planted in soil.

Schisandra (5-flavor fruit) is a perennial deciduous vine that is native to east Asia and is known as 5-flavor vine, and Chinese Magnolia Vine. The unique fruit is known as 5-flavor fruit as it has a salty, sweet, sour, pungent (spicy), and bitter taste. The fruit is edible and made into wine, juice and teas. The leaves and young shoots are used as a vegetable. This vine is one of the fifty fundamental plants in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Goumi Berry Plant is a nitrogen fixing bush in the elaeagnus family that produces an edible berry. Although it is in the same family as Autumn olive, the goumi is not invasive like autumn olive and the berries are much larger and tastier than autumn olive. Although I love just eating the berries fresh out of hand, many people use the berries for making jams and preserves. Our plants are seedlings of Sweet Scarlet which is a Ukrainian variety hardy down in USDA hardiness zones 4.

Honeyberry bushes are in the honeysuckle family and is native to Asia. They produce a berry that taste similar to a sour blueberry or plum. The thing I love most about this bush is that it is the first plant to produce fruit for me each year, beating out both blueberries and strawberries by a month!

Wild Plum Trees, Prunus americana, commonly known as the American plum or wild plum, is a versatile and native North American plant valued for its ornamental beauty, edible fruit, and ecological benefits. A thicket-forming shrub or small tree with short trunk, many spreading branches, broad crown, showy large white flowers, and red plums. It has edible fruit in clusters with 1–5 fruits; fruit usually ¾–1 inch long, globe-shaped, red or sometimes yellow, conspicuously marked with pale dots; skin tough; flesh yellow and juicy, varying in flavor.

Black Cherry - wild, Prunus serotine, is a tree hardy in USDA hardiness zones 3 to 9. Other common names are black cherry, rum cherry, and wild cherry. The fruit is suitable for making jam and cherry pies. They are also a popular flavoring for sodas and used in many ice creams, cooking and smoking foods. Cherry timber is considered the Premier timber for cabinetry. As for wildlife the fruit is eaten by the mallard, turkey, ruffed grouse, bobwhite, pheasant, many woodpeckers, and a wide variety of others

Che Trees or Chinese mulberry, is one of my favorite tasting fruit trees. The flavor profile is a cross between a fig and watermelon. This tree grows from 7’ up to 20’ and can be pruned into the shape of a large umbrella. It is grafted on Osage orange to reduce the suckering tendencies of non-grafted Che trees.

Hybrid American Chestnut - The American hybrid chestnut tree is a significant development in forestry and conservation efforts aimed at restoring the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), which was nearly wiped out by chestnut blight in the 20th century. These hybrids combine the desirable traits of the American chestnut, such as its timber quality and nut production, with the blight resistance of Asian chestnut species, primarily the Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima).

Blackberry Plants, Thorn-less - The name, Murphys thornless blackberry, comes from my fruit eating dog. He absolutely loves eating fruit around the yard. The first blackberries we have that ripen are the thorned variety. Murphy goes after the blackberries, but quickly learns that his appetite for fresh fruit is not worth dealing with the thorns. But in mid-summer when the thornless blackberries ripen, our little Murphy is in heaven. He runs from plant to plant eating any blackberry he can pull off, so we named this cultivar “Murphy’s Thornless Blackberry”.

Sea Kale, Crambe maritima, is a hardy drought tolerant herbaceous perennial plant that is hardy in USDA Hardiness zones 4 to 9. Sea Kale has edible roots, shoots, leaves, stems, and flowers. Plant parts can be eaten raw early when they are tender or cooked later in the season. You want to cook the older leaves and stems to soften them. Young shoots are served like asparagus. The flavor of young rosettes resembles that of cabbage with a fine hazel taste.

Anise Hyssop Plant, Agastache foeniculum, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the mint family that attracts loads of pollinating insects in mid-summer. It is native to the prairies and plains of the United States and Canada. The plant is quite hardy, living in USDA hardiness zones 3 to 8. Each plant grows 2 to 4-foot tall and has a spread of 1 to 3 feet tall. While Anise Hyssop is a perennial, it readily reseeds itself and can form a dense plant if left unchecked. The leaves have a wonderful anise (black liquorish) smell and taste. It is used in herbal teas, to flavor jellies, fresh eating and adds a great taste to a salad mixed with other greens.

We will be mixing it up each week and bringing a different mix of plants from week to week. Keep an eye on our page each week for what we are brining and you can always check out our nursery page on GreatEscapeFarms.com. If you would like for us to bring a plant to the market for you that is not on our weekly list, email us at [email protected] or text us at 443-255-4331. We are a fully licensed nursery and offer a 1-year plant replacement guarantee.

Charles Town Farmers Market, WV

05/21/2026

PAWPAW!!!!!

On Saturday May 23rd Great Escape Farms will be at Charles Town Farmers Market at 100 S. Samuel St in downtown Charles Town from 9AM to noon. We are bringing Pawpaw trees for the first time this year! For the first time ever, we’ll have select pawpaw seeds for sale (with growing instructions) if you want to try growing from seed. Other plants we’re bringing include sweet potato starts/slips, Jerusalem artichoke, elderberry, flowering quince, blueberry, hardy citrus, kousa dogwood, fig, and raspberry.

Pawpaw trees are native to this area and are North Americas largest native fruit with a taste that is sometimes described as a cross between a mango and banana. We offer 2nd year seedlings in 14” tree pots giving plenty of room for the long taproot on pawpaws. Pawpaws require two trees to cross pollinate.

Sweet Potato Slips – Our sweet potato slips were planted into soil several weeks ago giving them a well rooted plant that is ready to take off and provide you with a lot of fall and winter sweet potatoes. We have both Beauregard (vining) and Vardamin (bush) varieties. We also have some Beauregard sweet potato slips a little cheaper that are not planted in soil.

Jerusalem Artichoke, also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple, or topinambour, is in the sunflower family and is native to Eastern North America. Jerusalem artichoke are primarily grown for their sweet and nutty flavored tubers. The tubers are sometimes used as a substitute for potatoes, having a similar consistency. Tubers may be grated raw into salads, boiled and/or mashed somewhat like potatoes, roasted or added to soups. The tubers store their carbohydrate as inulin rather than as starch. It has a botanical name of Helianthus tuberosus. Cultivated by native Americans for the tubers that resemble ginger root in appearance. Tuber production occurs in response to decreasing day-length in late summer. Each tuber/root can make an additional 75 to 200 tubers during a year. (that’s about 2-5 pounds of tubers per year.) This plant can become too aggressive for some gardens.

Grafted persimmons: We are offering up some grafted persimmons that MUST be pre-ordered. Please see below for details on grafted persimmon varieties. Note: we have very limited quantities of some varieties.

Grafted persimmons: all are female and self-fertile. They are grafted on American persimmon rootstock. They are $45 each and need to be pre-ordered as we will not have spares with us.

Davids Kandy – Scion is 50/50 Kaki X Virginiana grafted on Virginiana(American) rootstock. Produces medium-large fruit about 1½–2 inches across with exceptionally sweet, rich flesh often described as having caramel, brown sugar, and honey-like notes when fully soft.

Dollywood – 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Bears large fruit around 2 inches in diameter with a smooth, custard-like texture and a classic American persimmon flavor that is intensely sweet with hints of apricot and spice. Has a spreading growth habit and can be kept about 20-25’ with pruning. Name comes from being discovered near Dollywood, TN.

Early Jewell - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Early ripening. Produces medium fruit about 1–1½ inches across that ripen early and develop a bright, sweet flavor with mild honey and apricot tones when fully soft. Can be kept about 20-25’ with pruning.

H-55A - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Early ripening. A Claypool selection producing large fruit roughly 1¾–2 inches wide with very sweet flesh and a full, rich persimmon flavor often compared to honey, pumpkin custard, and dried apricot. Growth habit to 20’ tall and can be kept about 12’ with pruning.

Prok - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Produces very large fruit about 2–2½ inches across with exceptionally sweet, smooth pulp and a deep persimmon flavor often compared to honey, pumpkin custard, and dried apricot. A seedling from the Cornell University breeding program grown out by John Gordon of Amherst NY. Can be pruned to 15-20’ and unpruned from 30-80’. Known as a heavy bearing variety.

RussianBeauty/Rosseyanka – Scion is 50/50 Kaki X Virginiana grafted on Virginiana(American) rootstock. With no male variety present it has seedless fruit. Produces large fruit about 2½–3 inches across with sweet, smooth flesh that blends Asian persimmon sweetness with richer honey and apricot notes from its American parentage. Can be pruned to 10-12’ and unpruned up to 75’.

Tam Kam - Asian Scion grafted on American rootstock. Bears very large fruit about 3–4 inches across with firm, sweet flesh that develops a rich honeyed flavor with hints of brown sugar and apricot when fully ripe. The fruit is seedless unless you have an Asian male persimmon tree around. It can grow to 20-30’ tall.

Yates - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Bears medium fruit about 1½–2 inches across with smooth, sweet flesh and a classic American persimmon flavor combining honey, apricot, and light spice notes. Can reach up to 60’ tall.

We will be mixing it up each week and bringing a different mix of plants from week to week. Keep an eye on our page each week for what we are brining and you can always check out our nursery page on GreatEscapeFarms.com. If you would like for us to bring a plant to the market for you that is not on our weekly list, email us at [email protected] or text us at 443-255-4331. We are a fully licensed nursery and offer a 1-year plant replacement guarantee.

Charles Town Farmers Market, WV

05/14/2026

On Saturday May 16th Great Escape Farms will be at Charlestown Farmers Market at 100 S. Samuel St in downtown Charlestown from 9AM to noon. We are offering up some grafted persimmons that MUST be pre-ordered. We’ll also be bringing everbearing strawberry, goumi seedlings, aronia, nanking bush cherry, honeyberry, goji-berry, service berry, ginkgo biloba trees, blackberry, and anise hyssop. Please see below for details on grafted persimmon varieties. Note: we have very limited quantities of some varieties.

Grafted persimmons: all are female and self-fertile. They are grafted on American persimmon rootstock. They are $45 each and need to be pre-ordered as we will not have spares with us.

Davids Kandy – Scion is 50/50 Kaki X Virginiana grafted on Virginiana(American) rootstock. Produces medium-large fruit about 1½–2 inches across with exceptionally sweet, rich flesh often described as having caramel, brown sugar, and honey-like notes when fully soft.

Dollywood – 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Bears large fruit around 2 inches in diameter with a smooth, custard-like texture and a classic American persimmon flavor that is intensely sweet with hints of apricot and spice. Has a spreading growth habit and can be kept about 20-25’ with pruning. Name comes from being discovered near Dollywood, TN.

Early Jewell - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Early ripening. Produces medium fruit about 1–1½ inches across that ripen early and develop a bright, sweet flavor with mild honey and apricot tones when fully soft. Can be kept about 20-25’ with pruning.

H-55A - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Early ripening. A Claypool selection producing large fruit roughly 1¾–2 inches wide with very sweet flesh and a full, rich persimmon flavor often compared to honey, pumpkin custard, and dried apricot. Growth habit to 20’ tall and can be kept about 12’ with pruning.

Korean Kaki – Asian Scion grafted on American rootstock. The most widely cultivated persimmon cultivar. It grows 15 to 20’ tall. Produces medium to large fruit about 2½–3½ inches across with smooth, sweet flesh that develops a mild honeyed flavor with hints of melon and brown sugar when fully ripe.

Prok - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Produces very large fruit about 2–2½ inches across with exceptionally sweet, smooth pulp and a deep persimmon flavor often compared to honey, pumpkin custard, and dried apricot. A seedling from the Cornell University breeding program grown out by John Gordon of Amherst NY. Can be pruned to 15-20’ and unpruned from 30-80’. Known as a heavy bearing variety.

RussianBeauty/Rosseyanka – Scion is 50/50 Kaki X Virginiana grafted on Virginiana(American) rootstock. With no male variety present it has seedless fruit. Produces large fruit about 2½–3 inches across with sweet, smooth flesh that blends Asian persimmon sweetness with richer honey and apricot notes from its American parentage. Can be pruned to 10-12’ and unpruned up to 75’.

Tam Kam - Asian Scion grafted on American rootstock. Bears very large fruit about 3–4 inches across with firm, sweet flesh that develops a rich honeyed flavor with hints of brown sugar and apricot when fully ripe. The fruit is seedless unless you have an Asian male persimmon tree around. It can grow to 20-30’ tall.

Yates - 100% American persimmon – Rootstock and Scion wood. Bears medium fruit about 1½–2 inches across with smooth, sweet flesh and a classic American persimmon flavor combining honey, apricot, and light spice notes. Can reach up to 60’ tall.

We will be mixing it up each week and bringing a different mix of plants from week to week. Keep an eye on our page each week for what we are brining and you can always check out our nursery page on GreatEscapeFarms.com. If you would like for us to bring a plant to the market for you that is not on our weekly list, email us at [email protected] or text us at 443-255-4331. We are a fully licensed nursery and offer a 1-year plant replacement guarantee.

Charles Town Farmers Market, WV

05/08/2026

On Saturday May 9th Great Escape Farms will be at Charlestown Farmers Market at 100 S. Samuel St in downtown Charlestown from 9AM to noon. We will be bringing some of our lesser known edibles. We’ll be bringing catnip, lemon balm, fig trees, Chinese chestnut trees, American persimmon, hardy citrus, flowering quince, elderberry, Korean bush cherry, schisandra (5-flavor fruit), and everbearing strawberry.

An overview of each plant is below.

Catnip is a hardy perennial herb in the mint family traditionally grown for its aromatic leaves, which are well known for stimulating playful behavior in many cats due to the compound nepetalactone. For humans, catnip is considered edible and is most commonly used fresh or dried in teas, salads, or as a mild culinary herb with a minty, slightly lemony flavor. Historically, it has been used in herbal medicine for calming effects, digestive support, and mild cold relief.

Lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, is a perennial herbaceous herb in the mint family that has lemony flavored leaves. Lemon balm is used for teas, eating straight out of hand, and as a medicinal plant, according to WebMD.

Fig trees are hardy in our area, at least some are. We are bringing three different types of fig trees that we have been growing here for at least 5 year. They are Brown Turkey, Chicago Hardy, and O’Rourke. Good Eats – the fruit has the usual sweet fig taste you would expect. You can use the leaves to wrap other foods in on the grill. You can also dry the leaves out and make tea.

Chinese chestnut trees, Castanea mollissima, is a medium size tree that produces large quantities of edible chestnuts. This tree can reach as high as 60 feet tall, but it takes a long time to get that tall because it only grows 12″ to 24″ per year in ideal conditions. It is very drought tolerant, likes full sun, acid soil, and prefers loamy soil but mine grows just fine in WV clay. The Chinese Chestnut is highly blight resistant so you won’t run into the blight issues that plagued the American Chestnut. Chinese Chestnut does require cross pollination, so you will want to plant others close by. The trees can start to produce nuts as early as the fourth year and ripens mid-September through October.

American persimmon is a deciduous tree that produces edible fruit in zones 4 to 9. American Persimmons are late to leaf out and flower after leafing out so late frosts are usually not an issue. The leaves usually fall off the tree before the fruit is ripe and it looks like a decorated Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Persimmon fruit when fully ripe is very sweet and can be eaten fresh out of hand or made into jams, jellies, cookies, pies, breads and many other deserts. Beware and do not pick the fruit off of the tree. Wait for it to fall. If you pick the fruit it will be very astringent and make your mouth pucker and give you a rather unpleasant experience. Persimmon fruit drops from the tree at the perfect ripeness.

Hardy citrus - (Flying Dragon Trifolate Orange) Trees is another tree native to Asia. This is a citrus tree that grows outside in the ground and handles our cold winters and hot summers without issues. It is self-fertile and looks beautiful when the fruit ripens.

Flowering quince is a beautiful bush that looks evergreen even though it is deciduous. The spring blooms are fire-engine red and are shaped like apple blossoms. If pollinated, it will produce small 2-inch yellowish fruits that are rather bitter. They are a beautiful addition to the garden. Some day we hope to get a compatible pollinator and try the fruit.

Elderberry is another unique edible plant to grow. It is a deciduous shrub and thrives in our mid-Atlantic region. Its scientific name is Sambucus. It loves full sun and moist but well drained soil. Many people make elderberry syrup as well as elderberry jam. It is said to be antiviral.

Korean bush cherry is a fine-textured bush cherry with fuzzy leaves that grows to 5-8 feet in height and width, like full sun to part shade and are hardy in zones 4-8. It is known as Korean Bush Cherry, Japanese bush cherry, or Oriental bush cherry with a scientific name of Prunus japonica. It is native from central China south through Korea. The Korean Bush cherry is covered in fragrant white flowers in the spring. These bush cherries produce average-sized, bright red cherries in mid-summer. The cherries are similar to Nanking cherries, but sweeter and less productive. The plants are self-fertile although two plants increase fruiting.

Schisandra (5-flavor fruit) is a perennial deciduous vine that is native to east Asia and is known as 5-flavor vine, and Chinese Magnolia Vine. The unique fruit is known as 5-flavor fruit as it has a salty, sweet, sour, pungent (spicy), and bitter taste. The fruit is edible and made into wine, juice and teas. The leaves and young shoots are used as a vegetable. This vine is one of the fifty fundamental plants in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Everbearing Strawberry is a variety of strawberry that fruits in June, just like other varieties, but the everbearing variety fruits again from late July all the way up until frost. All you need are a few plants to get your patch started. After they flower in June, the plants send out runners which look like a vine with another strawberry plant on the end. Once the plant on the end of the runner touches the ground, it roots and forms a new plant. I started with 3 plants decades ago and now have many thousands of strawberry plants and have been selling them for years.

We will be mixing it up each week and bringing a different mix of plants from week to week. Keep an eye on our page each week for what we are brining and you can always check out our nursery page on GreatEscapeFarms.com. If you would like for us to bring a plant to the market for you that is not on our weekly list, email us at [email protected] or text us at 443-255-4331. We are a fully licensed nursery and offer a 1-year plant replacement guarantee.

Charles Town Farmers Market, WV

05/01/2026

On Saturday May 2nd Great Escape Farms will be at Charlestown Farmers Market at 100 S. Samuel St in downtown Charlestown from 9AM to noon. We will be bringing some of our biggest sellers including strawberry plants, Goumi Berry Plants, Honeyberry Plants, Goji Berry Plants, Kousa Dogwood Trees, Thorn-less Blackberry Plants, Stinging Nettle Plants, Anise Hyssop Plants, Comfrey Plants, Elderberry Plants, Blueberry Plants and Raspberry Plants. An overview of each plant is below.

Everbearing Strawberry is a variety of strawberry that fruits in June, just like other varieties, but the everbearing variety fruits again from late July all the way up until frost. All you need are a few plants to get your patch started. After they flower in June, the plants send out runners which look like a vine with another strawberry plant on the end. Once the plant on the end of the runner touches the ground, it roots and forms a new plant. I started with 3 plants decades ago and now have many thousands of strawberry plants and have been selling them for years.

Goumi Berry Plant is a nitrogen fixing bush in the elaeagnus family that produces an edible berry. Although it is in the same family as Autumn olive, the goumi is not invasive like autumn olive and the berries are much larger and tastier than autumn olive. Although I love just eating the berries fresh out of hand, many people use the berries for making jams and preserves. Our plants are seedlings of Sweet Scarlet which is a Ukrainian variety hardy down in USDA hardiness zones 4.

Honeyberry bushes are in the honeysuckle family and is native to Asia. They produce a berry that taste similar to a sour blueberry or plum. The thing I love most about this bush is that it is the first plant to produce fruit for me each year, beating out both blueberries and strawberries by a month!

Goji Berry Plants (Lycium barbarum), also called the wolfberry, is a shrub that has purple flowers in the spring and early summer followed by bright orange-red berries in the late summer into fall. Dried goji berries are cooked and added to several dishes including; rice congee, almond jelly, and Chinese tonic soups and is said to go well with pork, chicken and vegetable stir fries. The berries can also be used in herbal teas. Other culinary uses include eating the young shoots and leaves as well as making using the berries for the production of wine.

Kousa Dogwood Trees (yes, the fruit is edible) - Cornus Kousa Dogwood is a small tree or large bush that has showy white flowers in early summer and edible pink fruit in the early fall. The fruit is a globose pink to red compound berry that can measure up to an inch and a half. The skin of the fruit is rather gritty, but the inner fruit is yellowish orange with up to a dozen small seeds in it. The inner fruit is sweet and creamy and is sometimes used to make wine. A neighbor of mine made Kousa jam with the fruit and we enjoyed using it for the next year.

Thorn-less Blackberry Plants - The name, Murphys thornless blackberry, comes from my fruit eating dog. He absolutely loves eating fruit around the yard. The first blackberries we have that ripen are the thorned variety. Murphy goes after the blackberries, but quickly learns that his appetite for fresh fruit is not worth dealing with the thorns. But in mid-summer when the thornless blackberries ripen, our little Murphy is in heaven. He runs from plant to plant eating any blackberry he can pull off, so we named this cultivar “Murphy’s Thornless Blackberry”.

Stinging Nettle Plants (Urtica dioica (gracilis) – This variety is a perennial native to North America, known to grow from USDA hardiness zone 3 to 10. They grow to about 3 feet tall. It is an edible plant that taste similar to cooked spinach when cooked – and by the way – you WILL want to cook these rascals as cooking renders the stingers harmless.

Anise Hyssop Plant, Agastache foeniculum, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the mint family that attracts loads of pollinating insects in mid-summer. It is native to the prairies and plains of the United States and Canada. The plant is quite hardy, living in USDA hardiness zones 3 to 8. Each plant grows 2 to 4-foot tall and has a spread of 1 to 3 feet tall. While Anise Hyssop is a perennial, it readily reseeds itself and can form a dense plant if left unchecked. The leaves have a wonderful anise (black liquorish) smell and taste. It is used in herbal teas, to flavor jellies, fresh eating and adds a great taste to a salad mixed with other greens.

Comfrey also known as “boneset”, has a long history of various medicinal uses. At one time it was also used in teas, but the FDA now advises against this. Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator meaning that it mines and collects a number of nutrients that other plants can’t get to. Comfrey does this with a very long tap root by mining nutrients from very deep down that are out of reach for other plants. The nutrients are then brought up to the top and stored in the leaves. The leaves are used as fertilizer for other plants and is a high source of nitrogen and potassium. The potassium is beneficial to any flowering and fruit bearing tree. Shown in this photograph I have a comfrey plant in the ground next to an apple tree in my back yard. We offer the Bocking-14 variety that does not produce seeds, so you do not need to worry about it becoming invasive.

Elderberry is another unique edible plant to grow. It is a deciduous shrub and thrives in our mid-Atlantic region. Its scientific name is Sambucus. It loves full sun and moist but well drained soil. Many people make elderberry syrup as well as elderberry jam. It is said to be antiviral.

Blueberry plants are sun and acid soil loving plants that produce a delicious and nutritious berry that has a deep blue skin and a tangy yellow center. The berries are produced over a long period of time making them great for just eating fresh out of hand while you are enjoying your yard.

Raspberries are a popular fruit enjoyed by many as a sweet treat. They are generally considered a good source for vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. The raspberry plant consists of a perennial roots system and biannual canes.

We will be mixing it up each week and bringing a different mix of plants from week to week. Keep an eye on our page each week for what we are brining and you can always check out our nursery page on GreatEscapeFarms.com. If you would like for us to bring a plant to the market for you that is not on our weekly list, email us at [email protected] or text us at 443-255-4331. We are a fully licensed nursery and offer a 1-year plant replacement guarantee.

Charles Town Farmers Market, WV

Address

167 Two Lick Lane
Romney, WV
26757

Telephone

(304) 209-1800

Website

http://GreatEscapeFarms.com/

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