Dumb question

OK, I should know this, but I've never seen it written anywhere...what exactly is the difference between a blackberry and a black raspberry?

pam

Blackberries are elongated in shape and quite juicy and tart. They have a small core in the middle that picks off along with the berry. Blackberries come in thorny and thornless.
The black raspberry is round, sweet, and the core is left on the plant. Black raspberries have stickers on the canes.

Thanks!!! Is one better than the other for preserves and/or fresh eating?

pam

The raspberries are better for fresh eating. The blackberries for other uses.

Thanks again!! :)

pam

Never apologize for a dumb question. Dumb questions are better than dumb mistakes.

I make plenty of those, too. :)

pam

I think the use depends on the variety, your taste and where you live. In my garden the blackberries are much better fresh than the raspberries. They tend to be sweeter than the raspberries. For the most part I use both to make syrup, jelly, jam and freeze a LOT of them whole for cobbler and pie.

Right you are kerry! Personal taste is quite variable. I love blackberries - fresh off the plant, in a cobbler, or in jam/preserves. Black raspberries are good, but to me, there's NOTHING that tastes more disgusting than red raspberries.

Well, Lucky, I have a summer red [don't know what variety] that makes me a red lover.

My black raspberries [Bristol] are surely sweeter than my Kiowas and Triple Crowns.

Hi all, We dont have many Raspberries in Georgia,but I have bought them! I really do not like them but my DH is from Ne England originally and he loves them 'cause they remind him of his childhood.
They are kind of pricey here too ,fromthe grocery store! I would like to grow some for My DH but not knowing to much about them was wodering about the best varieties,particularly the thornless! Do you think they would grow wellhere in Middle Ga.?

On another note, we are covered here with black berries and " Dew Berries"( early blackberiies that run on vines). They can take over an area real quick and become brambles if not careful, do raspberries do this?

I like blackberry jelly and syrup! Particularly when I found that giving a baby the syrup cures colic and other stomach upsets!( just a little folk remedy note)

The black raspberry stickers are sharp. They also reproduce when their tips touch the ground, then they form roots. They need to be trained upright then pinched to produce horizontal branches that fruit. I didn't like the look of the black raspberry plants, so I chucked them and their stinking thorns and just have red raspberries now.

Bill

Eufaula,

Raspberries do become brambles if neglected. To me, nothing can compare to the nice flavor of a blackberry!

This message was edited Jun 8, 2006 12:29 PM

Being new to raspberries country and looking to the wild ones here.. I could see no difference in the plants without berries. So I did a little research last week. raspberries get their flavor from one ketone that makes up the the 450 that are in raspberries. blackberry flavor is more complex with no 'blackberry' ketone.. just a complex mix. All I really know is that next year I am planting 'Illini Hardy' blackberries.. so I can have a bit of home here. My wife isn't excited about the blackberries, she is a raspberry loving yankee :)