Try growing a Goji berry bush. Goji berries are the craze now in health food circles, and they are quite expensive. The berries are renowned for their anti-oxidant properties, high levels of zinc and other vitamins. Some people buy bottled Goji berry juice, but one bottle can cost up to forty or fifty bucks.
I have a Goji berry shrub growing in my backyard. The bush is very hardy, able to withstand freezing winter temperatures (I live in Canada where temperatures go down to minus 35 regularly in the winter). It’s a pretty tough plant——all it needs is well-drained soil and regular watering and fertilizing. Every year, the bush puts out a bountiful crop of small purple flowers that develop into bright red berries by fall. You can eat them fresh, or dry them for later use. The berries are sweet, with a slightly bitter taste, but nevertheless delicious.
The plants are not offered for sale at garden centres, but you can perhaps find an Asian (Chinese) family where you live who is growing the plant (like I am) in their garden. All you need is a young plant with roots on it (the bush produces “baby plants” from suckers), or if you take a few cuttings, you can root them by putting the cuttings in water. That’s how my grandmother started growing the plant. The Goji berry bush is not a native of North America, but was brought over by a few Chinese immigrants who knew of its valuable properties. Ask around in Asian communities for the plant. Most likely, the families will be more than happy to give you a baby plant to start or cuttings.
You can also order Goji berry seeds and germinate them. It’ll take a little longer, but the plant grows quite fast. One drawback, the plant grows into a fairly large bush, about 6 feet tall and wide, after many years, but you can keep it small by trimming. The bush is also a bit “thorny”, not like a rose bush, but like a gooseberry bush.
Here’s one site to order seeds. Good luck! ———
http://www.saskgojipower.ca/products.html?gclid=CMa1jcXHy6ICFY845wodyCcQzA