A touch of honey

THE first coffee of the day, the first warm-car interior of late winter that promises imminent spring, the first late-spring swallow: firsts hold a special place in our hearts and so, too, the first fruit of the year.

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Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea), also known as honeyberry, takes the gong, with fruit often ripening in May. Blue honeysuckles are not climbers in the way you might expect from other honeysuckles; they form a woody bush between 3ft tall and 9ft wide.

Native to Siberia, Japan and China, blue honeysuckle has long been part of the forager's year, but, in the wild, you take your chances as to whether the fruit is delicious or disappointing. Thankfully, its flavour potential and excellent hardiness saw breeding programmes start in the 1950s, resulting in superior cultivars of fine flavour and resilience. The plant can handle any temperature the UK can throw at it and even the flowers can deal with -7°C or so.