Black Raspberry / Blackcap (Rubus occidentalis)

Family: Rosaceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

Arching prickly cane with chalky glaucous bluish-white stems and deeply flavored black hollow-cored aggregate berries.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Berries, Shoots, Leaves

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Late Summer

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Intense, wine-like, deeply aromatic sweet-tart berry far richer and more concentrated than red raspberry. — Eaten warm off the briar under the summer sun; Cooked into award-winning jams, preserves, and cobblers; Infused into vinegar for artisanal berry shrub cordials

Habitat & North American Range

Fencerows, pasture borders, forest margins, and sunny thickets. (Zone 3, Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8)