Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were to cross a blackberry and a raspberry? The answer, which we have thanks to a couple of Scottish botanists, is the tayberry a large reddish purple berry.
Originally cultivated in 1962 by David Mason and David Jennings of the Scottish Crops Research Institute, Invergowrie, Scotland the tayberry is a wonderful cross-involving a raspberry and a blackberry. It is a summer berry usual baring fruit in the months of July and August and is rather delicious both cooked and eaten fresh of the cultivated shrub in the genus Rubus of the family Rosaceae.
It looks and smells like a blackberry; but just one bite reveals the difference. There is a slight tartness to the tayberry, which is both welcome and unexpected.
Tayberries are perfect for a summer picnic basket or a late summer pie. If you are planning a picnic to your local park, tayberry jam and peanut butter sandwiches may be exactly what you have the taste for it makes a wonderful jam. Before heading to your picnic, you may want to prepare a tayberry pie the night before.
Add tayberries to your bowl of ice cream or you may even enjoy some in a fruit salad or in jello salad recipes. Use them as you would any other fruit for example being, in cereal or with cool whip. There are many ways that you can enjoy it even if it is eaten by itself.
Tayberries also make a delicious dessert wine. With a beautiful red color not unlike that of pinot noir, the wine has a sweet and sour taste which is very appealing and pairs well with meats, especially red meats and game. It also goes well with strong cheeses and is quite reasonable, usually costing about $15 a bottle.
Besides it’s one of a kind flavor, the tayberry also contains a lot of nutritional value. Tayberries are a good source of vitamin C, bioflavonoids, folate, and fiber. The tayberry fruit and leaves are also employed as a home remedy for diarrhea.
There is another old home remedy and that is to chew on the leaves to help cure bleeding gums. They say that they have faithfully adopted this in Scotland over 2000 years ago. It is still common today as well.
Tayberry is a versatile fruit indeed, with applications from food to wine to home remedies. This is a new and different fruit, which you can use in many dishes. Tart, sweet, and absolutely delicious, the tayberry’s uses are limited only by your imagination.
