This Delicious Fruit Is Native To One Small Inaccessible Corner of Michigan

This delicious fruit, the saskatoon berry, is native to one small part of Michigan and there's a very good chance you've never tasted it.

The saksatoon, also known as a service berry, is found throughout the Canadian plains and north to Alaska, but it is also native to Michigan's Isle Royale.

According to a book on the island,

The saskatoon, which resembles the juneberry, is found here.

But the saskatoon not common to mainland Michigan. However there is a grower that is trying to introduce the saskatoon to more Michigan farms. Called Saskatoon Michigan, the farm, located in Willamsburg, between Traverse City and Kalkaska, grows and harvests saskatoons and sells them fresh and frozen around northern Michigan.

The Taste of the Saskatoon

NPR profiled Michigan saskatoon growers and got lots of different responses when it comes to the taste of the berry,

"Every time I eat them I get a different flavor," says Steve DuCheney, who grows saskatoons in the northern part of Michigan. "The other day I had somebody tell me they tasted like peach, and that was the first time I heard that one."

Others say they have a nutty flavor, like an almond. Rich Fasi of Interlochen, Mich., thinks of them as a mix between a blueberry and a cherry. "They're really sweet," he says. His wife uses them in pies.

The saskatoon plant and the fruit look like blueberry. But the shrub is actually more closely related to an apple tree.

A look at saskatoon berry harvesting in Canada will make you hungry to try this little known fruit

Even if the saskatoon is not at your local farmers market, check out these foods from the past: