This interesting and compact annual edible yields berries that are yucky raw. However they are a tasty huckleberry or blueberry substitute in pies, jams etc. if cooked with sugar and lemon. It has been sold as Wonderberry, Burbank's sunberry, annual huckleberry, and garden huckleberry... scientific name can be either Solanum burbankii, or solanum melanocerasum

I am no plant ID expert, but I grew a whole bunch of wonderberry/sunberries last year, and none of them looked anything like that plant. The leaves were a totally different shape, the plant was more of a small bush than a vine, and totally lacked the little tendrils I see in the pic. Whatever you have there is not a Wonderberry. It does look nice and healthy, though.

Thanks for the welcomes! I am trying to grow it slowly so it doesn't get out of hand. My skills (marketing, efficiency, and all sorts of things) need to grow with it so slow, steady growth is certainly what I'm aiming for. I'm not yet sure how big I want to go with this but I'll probably have a better feel for it in a year or two. Thanks for the tips, Slimy. Since my garden here is still young, I don't have enough of many things to take to market so I'm trying to whet the appetite of my customers with an occasional teaser. Our berry patches are in their infancy so I put a strawberry, blackberry, or raspberry as a "decoration" on top of cakes. I'm working peaches & sunberries into sweet breads. Things like that just to give 'em a taste of what produce we'll have in future years. I'll tell you what -- this is the toughest job (outside of being a parent) that I've ever had. The most fun, too. Diane

Now, we can talk! This is what I was suspecting but couldn't see from the original photos. And WHO was gonna believe this? Your pest is the larvae of the three-lined potato beetle. It piles its excrement on its back as a fashion statement of some kind (actually a good disguise). Your plant is in the same family as potatoes, tomatoes, etc. Here is a link that might be useful: