In 2016, a farmer’s son returned from honeymoon in Japan with both his bride and news of a nutritionally magical berry, apparently adding a new legend to Scotland’s rich tradition.

Yet this was no myth. Stewart Arbuckle had been introduced to honeyberries in the colder regions of Japan and could hardly wait to bring tell of them back to the family fruit farm in Invergowrie, near Dundee in Perth and Kinross. Hearsay has it that his suitcase, and the new Mrs Arbuckle’s, returned packed with as many incarnations of the berry, even children’s sweets, as the newlyweds could gather. Word spread and the Scottish Honeyberry Growers co-operative was formed.

Fifth-generation farmer Finlay Hay, a relation of the Arbuckles, was a founding member. Together with other growers — now numbering eight and

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