What happens when you put a blackberry and a raspberry together? Thanks to Scottish botanists, we now know that the answer is the tayberry. This berry is a very large, dark reddish to 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.
The Tayberry looks at first glance like a blackberry, but all it takes is one taste to know this is no ordinary blackberry. The tayberry has a tart bite thanks to its raspberry heritage, which sets it apart. This is a surprising but deliciously welcome newcomer to the fruits in your local market.
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.
Try adding tayberries to a bowl of yogurt or ice cream, or incorporate them into fruit salads and smoothies for something a little different. In fact, you can use tayberries anywhere you would ordinarily use blackberries or raspberries. Tayberries are an exciting addition to your morning cereal, baked goods and of course, they are wonderful just eaten as they are – there’s no wrong answer to the question of how to enjoy these fruits.
Tayberries are also used to make a wine. The wine features a brilliant ruby red color and a taste with just the right amounts of sweetness and tartness. It makes a great pairing with strong cheeses, red meat, and game. The wine makes a great gift and at only about $15 a bottle, a very affordable one as well.
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.
Another home remedy using tayberry leaves (originally raspberry or blackberry leaves, but tayberry works equally well) is to chew the leaves as a cure for bleeding gums. The Scots have been using this home remedy for 2,000 years!
Tayberry can be used for many things from home remedies to food and wine. Definitely a different type of fruit and surely delicious you will be amazed at how many things you can make with it. Although tart in nature, many have used it to make pies, jams, and pudding. Sure there is a lot more that you can find in such an exotic fruit. It is really only limited by your imagination.