National Raspberry Cake Day is jubilantly feasted each year on July 31. A raspberry cake is a cool and refreshing dessert that is a summertime favorite around the United States.
Raspberries are the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus of the rose family. The name also applies to the plants themselves.
- Raspberries are woody stemmed perennials.
- Raspberries are widely grown in all temperate regions of the World.
- Raspberries are a very important commercial fruit crop.
- At one time, raspberries were a midsummer crop. However, with new technology, cultivars and transportation, they can now be obtained year-round.
- An individual raspberry weighs 0.11 – 0.18 oz.
- An individual raspberry is made up of about 100 drupelets.
- One raspberry bush can yield several hundred berries a year.
- A raspberry has a hollow core once it is removed from the receptacle.
- Raspberries are a rich source of vitamin C, manganese and dietary fiber.
- Raspberries contain vitamin B1, vitamin B3, folic acid, magnesium, copper and iron.
- The word “raspberry” seems to come from the Old French raspise, a term meaning “sweet rose-colored wine”.
- Raspberries are a type of fruit known as an aggregate fruit. Aggregate fruits have flowers with multiple ovaries and each ovary produces drupelets around a core formed by the flower. Each drupelet could actually be considered a separate fruit.
- There are over 200 different known species of raspberries but only 2 species are grown on a large scale.
- The term “raspberry” for a flapping noise made with the tongue and mouth seems to have originated in the Cockney dialect of England. The sound was originally called a raspberry tart, and was later shortened to raspberry.
- Raspberries have been crossed with other berries to form new species.
- The loganberry is a cross between raspberries and blackberries. The boysenberry is a cross between red raspberries, blackberries and loganberries. The nessberry is a cross between a dewberry, raspberry, and blackberry and other crosses include laxtonberries, veitchberries, and mahdiberries.
- The people of Troy, in modern-day Turkey, were the first to note an appreciation of the raspberry fruit.
- 4 A.D. saw the first writings on the cultivation of raspberries.
- Raspberries are a wonderful source of vitamin C, containing 40 percent of a person’s daily needs.
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