Red Raspberry

It’s pretty crazy that the very first fruit I covered was black raspberry.

I’ve also covered blackberries by now, so we really have to cover the basic red raspberry as well!

Let’s dive into one of the best classic berries:

Plant Profile:

Scientific Name: Rubus strigosus & R. idaeus

Preferred Habitat: Woodlands, trail-sides, riverbanks, forest edges

Edible Parts: Fruit, flowers, leaves

Distribution: Most parts of North America except the hottest parts of the south and some of the Great Plains region (not that they can’t be grown)

Harvest Season: Summer to early fall depending on variety

Key Identifiers: Hazy white thorny canes with toothed leaves that have pale undersides, aggregate fruits that are red (we’ll go over exceptions later)

Toxic Look-Alikes: There may be several weedy plants that have a vague resemblance to cane fruits like raspberry but none will also have the traditional thorns and fruit that looks anything like red raspberry. This is a very beginner-safe forage!

Nutrition: (Per 1 Cup)

• Calories: 64

• Carbs: 14.7 grams

• Fiber: 8 grams

• Protein: 1.5 grams

• Fat: 0.8 grams

• Vitamin C: 54% of RDI

• Manganese: 41% of RDI

• Vitamin K: 12% of RDI

• Vitamin E: 5% of RDI

• B vitamins: 4–6% of RDI

• Iron: 5% of RDI

• Magnesium: 7% of RDI

• Phosphorus: 4% of RDI

• Potassium: 5% of RDI

• Copper: 6% of RDI

Like other berries we’ve covered, these fruits are incredibly nutrient dense and great for you!

Uses

The fruit goes without saying; you can eat them fresh, as jam, juiced, fermented, baked with, used in desserts, or vinaigrettes, added to smoothies, or even freeze-dried.

If you won’t use them right away, they also freeze well.

I like to add them to fruit leather to add an extra kick (especially when I’m making an otherwise bland fruit leather from apple pulp or something).

The flowers are technically edible, but you will reduce your fruit yield when you harvest any significant amount (since each flower would otherwise become a fruit). They’re pretty plain and mild but some people use them in herbal teas or to garnish desserts.

The leaves are medicinal and can help with a lot of pre and post-natal functions, as well as menstrual cycle functions. (My wife takes red raspberry leaf tea all the time, according to her it helps a LOT).

In addition, the leaves are also loaded with vitamin C so that’s good for you even if you aren’t a woman.

Growth Habits

By default, red raspberries are a perennial plant that grows biennial canes (shoots).

In year one, the canes will be greenish and won’t flower or produce fruit. The second year they will flower and produce fruit, and send up more young canes. In year three, the first year canes will die and and the second year canes will fruit and so on.

Because of this, I generally only thin out dead canes or canes I don’t want spreading any further.

I have also noticed that if you transplant the canes they may die completely to the ground only shoot back up the following spring! So don’t necessarily give up hope if they don’t survive!

Keeping them in a location that you don’t mind being a little unkempt is probably the best idea since they will take over in just a few years if you aren’t constantly pulling them. That said, some cultivars are more vigorous than others.

The only red raspberries I grow are insanely hardy and vigorous but I haven’t noticed that same level with other raspberries I see in friend’s gardens. (Hit me up and I’ll share some canes with you if you need something aggressive).

Additional Information

It’s important to note something here just for clarity:

Nearly all red raspberries will be a cross between the European and American red raspberries (R. idaeus & R. strigosus respectively) and many cane fruit are crosses between many other cane fruit since they cross very easily even in the wild!

Both R. idaeus & R. strigosus are so closely related they are often categorized as subspecies of the same species.

In the wild there are on rare occasion, yellow mutations of red raspberry that contain less anthocyanins, but more carotenoids like lutein and beta-carotene! These varieties are sweeter and very pretty, I highly recommend growing some (this will be our first good harvest from golden raspberries!)

Cultivars

Thankfully there are many cultivars of raspberry! Some are reds, some are crosses between red and black raspberries, some are the golden mutation, all of these should be solid picks in the garden:

• Heritage - An everbearing variety (Summer and fall harvests) that is a classic for a reason. Good fruit, great yields, high vigor.

• Prelude - An early-ripening variety with excellent flavor.

• Glencoe Purple - A black-red hybrid that produces fruit on first year canes! This is especially nice if you want to cut the canes down completely every year.

• Royalty Purple - An upright sweet purple raspberry that doesn’t spread via root runners and avoids late frost. Beautiful fruit, great flavor, good for cold climates.

• Double Gold - A pinkish gold raspberry bred by Cornell University for its stunning color!

• Cascade Gold - An everbearing true yellow raspberry that is very sweet and pretty.

• Anne Yellow - An everbearing golden raspberry that is firm for storing, but also has good flavor. (This is the one I have)

• Nova - A mid-season firm red raspberry with great flavor and is a great one for markets.

•  Caroline - A firm everbearing red raspberry that has an exceptional flavor! Definitely a market berry.

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