snasxs, I am not exaggerating that it is highly perishable. In room temperate you will notice the difference in 1 day. Last year I flew with one box of Yumberry (purchased fresh in the morning) from Southern China to a northern city. By the night I can smell the difference (still quite good). And even in China, most people in northern China never have chance to taste fresh Yumberry due to the fact that they are highly perishable and hard to transport w/o being damaged, even in this day and age (by comparison you can get fresh, air-transported lychee in almost any city in China). I bought some in Beijing Walmart last year and it tastes like a rotten berry. Since you got it from a USA supermaket, it was likely picked long before ripe. I've never seen semi-green ones. They should be either red or dark red (near black) when ripe, depending on the variety.

I don't have the trees your looking to trade for but I have fig plants to trade with if you are interested in trade.

The jelly can be softened. I had some quite stiff blueberry and added some honey and a dash of water, then placed in the microwave about 45 seconds. Just enough to get it a little softer. Now that is done, the jelly is more like a spreadable syrup. The blues can be different sizes and once frozen will lose some of the water as ice. Keep in mind a cup of big cultivated blueberries will cook down to less than a cup, compared to a cup of small wild blueberries. Its the same with Kosher salt vs. canning salt. The bigger the particle size, the less there will be if measured in a cup. A weight would be more accurate.

Yeah, the photo is of the Sugar Shack buttonbrush. Cornus kousa is pretty common here as a yard tree but they may have seen another dogwood. They said it was a thin stemmed bush and that they don't remember the leaves being as shiny as the ones in the photo. I've checked online Chinese literature and found nothing that adds up. Thanks