Dewberries, Boysenberries, Blackberry Hybrids, Blackberries and Mulberries compared for taste

Hi to all,

I am itchy to buy some cane fruits for next year and Id like to get an order in soon----3 questions please:

(1) How many blackberries would do a family of 3 for all their blackberry needs:  fresh eating, pies, jellies, syrup, dried fruit for a rainy day.

(2) Comparing and contrasting the taste of the following: Dewberries, Boysenberries, Blackberry hybrids, Blackberries, Raspberries and Mulberries, are there any standout varieties either really good or really
"musty" that you can recommend or advise against?

(3) I mentioned drying and I think that mulberries probably start out with the lowest moisture content although I could be wrong. Is there any cane fruit or variety thereof that is superb for drying?

(4) Okay I lied, Im thinking wine too. Any of the above make a superb little backyard wine?

Thanks for your very enthusiastic culinary comments.....Best..Mike

Rubus caesius What I call a dewberry has the best taste of all of them as far as I am concerned, but the plant is much smaller and stragglier than blackberries or their cultivars. How many you need well that's a very hard question, I remember picking several carrier bags full every year from the hedges, that kept us in wine, jam and pies all year (they are terrible dried, to many seeds)
Blackberries make a very good wine and you can make it just like grape wine as they also have natural yeasts.

First, just to be clear, mulberries are not a cane fruit. They certainly look a lot like blackberries, but they grow on a tree/shrub.

I harvest mulberries from our tree every year when I can. One tree certainly provides enough for our family of 5 (including 2 small kids). We freeze the extras. I could see consuming 2-3 trees worth if you were aiming for self-sufficiency though.

I haven't had a blackberry harvest yet. I recently planted three thornless blackberry canes and they've been slowly growing. I expect they will not provide us with enough blackberries at first, but they do spread as the canes find the ground and take root.

We also have a wild raspberry that grows here, but it doesn't produce more than a nibble for the kids in the garden, even though they grow up just about everywhere.

As long as the thorns aren't a problem I think the more is merrier with cane fruits!

Hi,

My experience with blackberries,
In Australia, Blackberries are an huge invasive species, with thorns that rip up clothing,
at work I normally were cargo pants at the thickest and strongest available to buy, and then I wear gators, Snake protectors and gloves. where going through blackberries. the gloves end up ripped up.

when they are in season, using a plank or form of cardboard sheet, is a fun experience my family has enjoyed making a weekend trip up to pick blackberries for generations.

Black berries have been used by peter Andrews as part of his ideas of rehydrating land.
I have thought about buying a large property and having swales with blackberries in them.

Please note: you can buy thorn less varieties!

My experience with mulberries, all Aussie kids have picked mulberries walking to school or walking past a fence,
and have Grown silkworms in the leaves.
and everyone has experience of there mum seeing a mulberry tree and instinctively telling them not to stain there clothes on the mulberries,
You will also stain your fingers on mulberries.
they are much sweeter and more abundant then blackberries.

Mulberries are more of a tree, then a cane, and you will get a much bigger and more regular harvest with mulberries than black berries. Most people just have one mulberry tree near a fence.
But mulberry tree can also produce a lot of shade.
I have neighbours who have a 25 year plus Mulberry tree. its base is around 400 to 600 in diameter.

But when growing plants you do realise that your own growing methods significantly effects the flavour of the fruit.
Lemons can be grown extremely sweet and not sour.
You know the potassium, magnesium, photosynthetic effectiveness. Check with refractometer.

I know this is not very helpful, But I only have experience making tomato jam, from plants I have grown!

I have tried numerous thornless blackberry varieties and I'm not a fan. As far as I'm concerned the only blackberry that I find worth growing is the Marionberry. It's flavor is unsurpassed. I find wild blackberries bland.

4-6 plants should be sufficient for your family. An easy way to get that many is buy one, and let it tap down and grow more plants. I've never dried blackberries, I don't think that they would be good for that too many seeds. I suspect freeze drying would be better, I love freeze dried raspberries. But they are amazing for jam, and fresh. Freezing is okay, but it's best to eat them only partially thawed.

My favorite are Tayberries, a hybrid raspberry/blackberry developed in the UK. It is fragile and doesn't ship, so unless you live near a farm or grow your own frozen might be available.  Last year mine kicked in and from 4 plants I picked around 20 lbs.

Mark - I think that tayberries were mentioned on one of the BBC gardening shows. I can't remember if it was A Gardener's World or another one. I'm not sure that I can get them in the US. Sounds intriguing though.

Mark Whidbey wrote:My favorite are Tayberries, a hybrid raspberry/blackberry developed in the UK. It is fragile and doesn't ship, so unless you live near a farm or grow your own frozen might be available.  Last year mine kicked in and from 4 plants I picked around 20 lbs.

Mark, Welcome to Permies and thanks for the suggestion.
If the Tayberry tastes like a cross between a good blackberry and raspberry, I may have to try and get one! What sort of fruiting/growth habit have they? Is it more like a raspberry (single canes) or blackberry (ever increasing thicket!)?

I personallhy find Marion berries delish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionberry

There is a good description at:  tayberries

I bought them 3 years ago and had them in an area they didn't like growing in, too dark (PNW forest) I believe and the deer love the leaves. I moved them and last year they exploded. The canes are similar to a Himalayan blackberry, not as thorny but still can bite.  I ordered loganberries, marionberries and boysenberries this year too add into the patch. I live in an 8b on an island.

Mark Whidbey wrote:There is a good description at:  tayberries

I bought them 3 years ago and had them in an area they didn't like growing in, too dark (PNW forest) I believe and the deer love the leaves. I moved them and last year they exploded. The canes are similar to a Himalayan blackberry, not as thorny but still can bite.  I ordered loganberries, marionberries and boysenberries this year too add into the patch. I live in an 8b on an island.

Where did you get your tayberries? 've been wanting to try them.

I really enjoy the taste of Fall Golden Raspberries. You aren't ever going to see them in the stores because they are so delicate and when they taste the best, they often kind of fall apart into individual druplets. But the taste is so delicious even at various stages of ripeness. I have a random assortment of red raspberries too but I love golden raspberries the best.
They are a "fall bearing" fruit but if you don't cut them back in the fall, you can get an equally large crop in the spring too. Ours produce from June to October with a little break in early August.

Stacy Witscher wrote: I find wild blackberries bland.

Oh dear, oh dear! Please do not give up on trying wild blackberries. Up here in Washington, we have three wild blackberries. The Pacific blackberry (a tiny ground trailing kind), the Himalayan, and the Evergreen.

The Evergreen variety has sharply jagged toothed leaves with silver canes and it's fruit is bland. I do not care to eat it. The Himalayan is large and juicy and the fruit looks similar to the Evergreen but it's so much sweeter with a touch of tartness. But the flavor can really be impacted by the weather and the amount of rain and how much direct sunlight the fruits get. In a bad year, they can taste bland from too much water or bland because they are dried up but a good year, oooh, I can make myself sick eating them. They are usually best mid August but get ripe late July to September for us.

The Pacific trailing blackberry has the best taste of all and it generally fruits in the spring here in western WA. My dad loves at a higher elevation and a higher latitude and his ripen a couple weeks before mine (weird, I know). They are tiny, blackberries in miniature. But they are like blackberries' version of Alpine strawberries. As if the flavor of a large delicious blackberry has been multiplied and then compacted into a tiny package.