The health benefits of Goji berries are huge. They not only provide high levels of antioxidants and nutrients, they help stabilize blood sugar, detoxify the liver and keep your energy and mood up.  In addition to those benefits, it is known to boost fertility, and promote eye health and healthy skin.

Those are a lot of  health benefits from a little berry that is not only delicious but they are easy to grow.

Goji Berries One of Top Anti-Oxidant Foods

Yesterday, I smiled when I saw goji berries at the top of the ten best anti-oxidant foods. My Sweetheart, who is also my wife of nearly 58 years, had just picked a bunch of them.  Online, I saw them for $20 a pound. We used to buy them for $2/lb. at Chao’s Asian food market on University Ave. in Provo, Utah.
We would go to their lovely little store almost every week and buy some of their wonderful fresh Asian produce, and we became very good friends with Mr. and Mrs. Chao.  When they would see us come in, he would say, “HELLO, MRS. ALLAN; HELLO, MR. ALLAN!” even when there were other people in the store, and she would give us a hug, and he would hug Edna as well.

One day, I asked Mr. Chao if we could grow goji berries, (also known as wolfberries) and there came across his face this big smile.  In Fountain Green, our growing season is about two weeks shorter than Utah County because we are at 6,000 feet and it gets 20 below in the winter.  He knew it would thrive at that elevation because the plant grows like a weed.  He had a start for us the next week when we came by. Once you get it started, it grows underground as well as from the berries that drop.

Growing Your Own Goji Berries

It is best to start with cuttings from mature plants rather than seed because it shortens the time in which the bushes produce berries. Cuttings can produce berries right away while starting from seed can take from 3 to 5 years to begin to produce fruit.

Goji berries like to be planted in somewhat moist soil and appreciate a little afternoon shade if you live in a hot climate where temperatures consistently get above 100 degrees.  Being at such a high elevation we don’t have that problem. However, once established they are pretty well drought free.  Lots of sun produces a berry that is very sweet and helps to contribute to a high yield. They need to be watered to produce a good crop.  By the way, the bird love them as well.

Plant your starts about 4 feet apart because they grow into a good size bush.

It’s nice to know that they are not only disease resistant but deer and rabbits leave them alone, which is especially helpful because of the area we live in. Also, you don’t have to protect plants from insects with sprays and chemicals.

We had a wonderful harvest this year.  A mature plant can produce as much as 7 lbs. of berries a season and continues to produce year after year. You can eat them fresh, juice them or freeze or dry them. (They look like raisins.)

Edna dries them and we enjoy them all year long. She adds them to her excellent home-made granola cereal, which we eat with almond milk – yummy.

David  W. Allan

P.S. Goji berries are a way to provide your family high levels of antioxidants and nutrients, and growing goji berries is so easy and trouble free that it’s definitely worth your consideration.