Try chatting with a Texan about dewberries, and they'll talk your ear off about wild berry picking expeditions and Mom's dewberry jam. According to the OED, a berry is "any fruit that has its seeds enclosed in a fleshy pulp, for example, a banana or tomato.
But when we talk about berries we are usually talking about the tiny, colorful, juicy sweet-tart jewels that we use in pies and jams. We're all familiar with the usual suspects: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.
This time of year, though, especially where I live on the West coast, we get all kinds of oddball berries at the market. What the heck are olallieberries, anyway? What is the difference between a tayberry and a loganberry? What are gooseberries good for? Consider this your field guide. Raspberries, like blackberries and many other thorny berries, are members of the Rosaceae family—just like roses.
The raspberry family includes dozens of different varieties, which vary in color from very pale almost white to golden, blue, red, and black. The yellow variety shows up pretty regularly at farmer's markets.
Flavor: Like red raspberries but very mild and more floral, both a little less tart and a little less sweet than their darker counterparts. Season: June, July, August. Uses: Lighter colored raspberries are extra delicate both in flavor and in texture so they're better suited to eating fresh than baking. Great for muddling in cocktails made with sparkling wine or club soda, whether they include gin or rum.
If you do want to bake 'em, galettes are a great way to go with all sorts of raspberries, since the fillings needn't be as sturdy as those for pie. Black raspberry isn't just a sno-cone flavor; it's a raspberry that's colored like a blackberry. A reliable way to tell the difference between blackberries and black raspberries is that blackberries retain their inner cone when they are picked and black raspberries come off the core, leaving the picked berry hollow.
While all the other colors of raspberries are fairly interchangeable when it comes to flavor and use, black raspberries are smaller, sturdier, and a bit more tart and earthy. Black raspberries are a native species to North America, as opposed to a hybrid like boysenberries, which they resemble. Flavor: Similar to red raspberries but slightly more intense, tart, and with a deeper brambly flavor hinting towards blackberry. Season: A very short, two to three week season, generally around July.
Uses: Black raspberries are very versatile since they're slightly sturdier than other raspberries. Where lighter, more delicate berries tend to fall apart and might need more sugar or binding agents to keep them cohesive in a pie filling or a jam, the sturdier black raspberries hold together better.
Put 'em in jam, pie, or muffins. Dewberries are closely related to blackberries, and while they can be found in the wild across much of US, they're especially common in the South. The dewberry vine grows on creeping canes, lower to the ground than a blackberry plant. The stems have small, fine red hairs in addition to thorns. Dewberries ripen slightly earlier than blackberries. Flavor: Comparable to wild blackberry, tart and intense.
Season: Late June through July. Uses: Pie, cobbler, or a syrup for drinks. When I was a kid a family friend made a yearly pilgrimage to a thicket of particularly delicious huckleberries in Point Reyes, CA.
He kept the location top secret, but I don't think he would have had much competition, anyway; he came back from foraging every year with a raging case of poison oak. He claimed the huckleberry buckle was more than worth it. Huckleberries are a smooth, round berry that ranges in color from red to dark blue. They're almost easier to forage than to find at the market if you can avoid the poison oak, that is.
Huckleberries played such a large part in the cuisine of the Plateau Native Americans Idaho, Montana, and Washington that there still are festivals to celebrate the first harvest—dried huckleberries sustained native populations through long cold winters. One difference between huckleberries and blueberries is the presence of seeds; blueberry seeds are so small that they you'd never know there were there. Huckleberry seeds are a little bit larger, though you don't need to spit them out or worry about separating them out for cooking- they're entirely edible.
Flavor: These sweet-tart flavor-packed berries are somewhat comparable to blueberry but more woodsy, almost vinous. Season: Early to mid fall. Uses: Huckleberries are great in pancakes ; just add them in as you would blueberries. They're also excellent in scones, since they're nice and sturdy.
If you want to go savory, cook huckleberries with just a little bit of sugar and serve with roasted meat. Elderberries are tiny and blue-black, wonderful for baking and also for making into wine. The history of elderberry wine in England and in Central and Eastern Europe goes back hundreds of years—it was particularly popular in 17th century England as a purported cure for the flu and the common cold.
The unripe berries and other parts of the plant have very mild toxic properties, which are neutralized when they are cooked or fermented. Even ripe berries can sometimes contain the alkaloids which will make you sick; it's best to be on the safe side and always cook or ferment them. Elderflowers come from the same plant as elderberries, and have a heady fragrance and floral flavor, perfect for infusing into syrups, sodas, or cordials.
You've probably tried St. Germain before, but the homemade stuff is worth the effort. Flavor: Elderberries are very sour with a touch of sweetness. You'll need to cook them with sweetener to make them palatable but cooked they have a lovely floral, herbacious, deep berry flavor.
Season: Mid-summer. Uses: Use elderberries in buckles, pancakes, pies, galettes, shrubs, and sodas. The flowers make wonderful syrups and cordials. You know where you've seen these guys before: in jam available in the food section of IKEA. Lingonberries play very prominently in Scandinavian cuisine; you really shouldn't serve Swedish Meatballs without a tart dollop of lingonberry sauce.
Smaller and sweeter in taste than the boysenberry, blackberries are a bit like pinecones in shape, while boysenberries are completely round, large, and far more fragile than the hardy blackberry. Boysenberries have a tinge of purple in their colours and contain small seeds, while blackberries are pure black and have larger seeds.
Containing less fat than blackberries, boysenberries are often touted as the healthier of the two. A gm of blackberries will contain 43 calories, while the same amount of boysenberries contains 50 calories. A gm of boysenberries also contains more carbohydrate than the same amount of blackberries An edible fruit belong to the Rubus genus in the Rosaceae family, blackberries are native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere and South America.
In botanical terminology, blackberries are not a berry per se — rather, they are classified as an aggregate fruit, which is made up of numerous drupelets.
These berries are both very high in manganese as well. Berries are a great summer fruit. They are light, and often admired for their juicy and sweet taste. And since boysenberries combine multiple berries, this further enhances their unique flavor profile. Blackberries are known for their tart and sweet flavor.
It is also important to note that before blackberries are fully ripened, they are glossy and taste extremely tart. Once they have ripened, the berries become dull and dark in appearance, and as a result, they will taste sweet with a soft texture. Conversely, boysenberries are very juicy and have a wonderful balance between those tart and sweet flavors. The flavor of boysenberry also combines the juicy tang of blackberry and floral sweetness of raspberry. Overall, boysenberries have an intense, juicy, rich, tart, sweet, and unique flavor profile.
For boysenberries, growing season is short, and once picked, they are not very stable. Boysenberries are available during late spring and early summer, while the best blackberries can be picked between August and September. Boysenberries can be used in similar ways to blackberries. For instance, you can find them both in jellies, jams, preserves, pies, tarts, syrups, wines, smoothies, teas, and other desserts and baked goods. You can also freeze berries and thaw them for use at a later time.
Moreover, you can see them added to appetizers and entrees in sauces. Boysenberry sauce in particular can be combined with black pepper, wine, and goat cheese on a rosemary flatbread. Boysenberry juice can also be reduced with juniper berries, beef stock, and mustard seed to create a savory and sweet sauce that can pair with roasted beef tenderloin.
What about the health benefits of boysenberries and blackberries? When it comes to your health, blackberries and boysenberries also have similar uses. This is because both are loaded with antioxidants, such as anthocyanins. Both are considered important to improve and maintain brain health, boost immunity and fight infection and certain cancers, and also benefit cardiovascular health. The cancer-fighting abilities of blackberries are well-documented. A study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in found that a specific anthocyanin called cyanidinglucoside in blackberries can effectively slow the growth of cancerous lung tumors.
Boysenberries are thought to be beneficial for regulating blood pressure and triglyceride levels, while blackberries protect blood vessels, also due cyanidinglucoside.
Boysenberries may also be able to improve lung function, reduce epilepsy risk, and benefit digestion. Are there any interesting facts and history about blackberries and boysenberries? The following are a few key points that stand out for each berry:.
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