National Raspberry Cream Pie Day is observed annually on August 1. Themed with other raspberry holidays in this same time period. Raspberries are most plentiful this time of year.
Raspberries are edible. Because they are fruit of the plant species in the genus Rubus of the rose family. The name ‘Raspberry’ also applies to the plants themselves. Check out these other facts about these delicious berries…
- Raspberries are woody stemmed perennials.
- An individual raspberry is made up of about 100 drupelets.
- One raspberry bush can yield several hundred berries a year.
- Raspberries produce more fiber per calorie than any common fruit – even prunes.
- There are over 200 species of raspberries.
- Raspberries, as well as strawberries, belong to the rose family.
- Raspberries can be four different colors, although red and black are the most common. They can also be yellow or purple.
- Don’t wash the berries until they are ready to be used.
- Approx. $700 million in pies are sold in grocery stores every year. This does not include restaurants, only grocery stores.
- If you lined up the number of pies sold in one year, they would circle the globe.
- Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of pie in 1644, declaring it a pagan form of pleasure. For 16 years, pie eating and making went underground until the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie in 1660.
- Pie was not always America’s favorite dessert – in the 19th Century, fruit pies were a common breakfast food eaten before the start of a long day.
- The Ancient Egyptians around 2,500BC are known to have eaten pies made with ground oats or wheat wrapped around a filling of honey or figs.
- 47% of Americans for whom the word “comforting” comes to mind when they think of pie.
- 1 in 5 Americans have claimed to have eaten an entire pie by themselves.
- 9% Americans who prefer to eat their pie crust-first.
- 18% of men who say their wife makes the best homemade pie while 2% of women who say their husband makes the best homemade pie.
- “As easy as pie” is an American expression. In the 1890’s, “pie” was a common slang expression meaning anything easy, a cinch; the expression “easy as pie” stemmed quite readily from that.
- Raspberries have been crossed with other berries to form new species.
- 4 A.D. saw the first writings on the cultivation of raspberries.
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