Foraging for Black Raspberries

Reader Contribution by Rebecca Harrold
Published on July 24, 2018
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One of my favorite items to forage is wild black raspberries. You need to work for these tidbits. Their thorns can seem impenetrable and the biting insects unsavory inhabitants of their brambles, but, oh, the taste of those berries is worth it!

Native to eastern North America, black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) are not to be confused with blackberries. The black raspberries are just that, raspberries with a deep purple colour when ripe rather than the red of typical raspberries. While it shares the deep purple with ripe blackberries, the black raspberry fruits are smaller (± 1/4 in.) and plucked off the stem so they have a hollow core. Blackberries, in contrast, are larger (± 1 in.) and picked with the stem still intact within the core of the fruit. The leaves of black raspberries have a whitish underside and the blackberries have green on both top and bottom. Both plants grow arching, thorny stems that can turn into a thicket of brambles if left alone.

Raspberries are one of the few plants that can grow beneath walnuts trees. First, the canes are shade tolerant and the walnuts cast a fair bit of shade. Second, the juglone produced by walnuts is toxic to many plants, but black raspberries are juglone resistant. In fact, some of the plumpest berries I’ve found were growing beneath walnuts; less competition from other plants, perhaps? If you have a walnut tree and are wondering what to plant beneath it, try black raspberries.

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