(Image: Nicolebaart)
Just as we finish up the last of the seasonal strawberries, it’s time for raspberries to burst forth and seduce us with their juiciness.
We all know raspberries are good for you being packed with vitamins and all that stuff but here are some lesser known facts about this delicious red berry. And for some reason, they all start with M.
As my random fake fact has been going down so well, I’ve thrown another lie into the mix this time too. If you guess which one it is you get to eat more raspberries. Hurrah.
Magical
Or so the Germans believe. Thanks to the delicacy of the fruit they believe it is full of calming magic and if you tie a wild raspberry twig around a bewitched horse it will tame the beast. I think I might leave this job to the Horse Whisperer, whatever the Germans say.
Mythical
In the Tale of the Raspberry Fox by Henning Buchhagen a fox named Ferdinand liked to go Easy on the Meat. In fact he didn’t like meat at all. So instead he ate raspberries. A lot of raspberries. He loved those little red berries so much that he couldn’t stop eating them. The more he ate the redder his fur became. Ever since then, foxes everywhere have had red fur and a taste for fruit.
Massive
The biggest raspberry ever grown was 12.7 ft wide, the exact same length as a Peugeot 106. James (of giant peach fame) reportedly put an offer in on it as a second home but was outbid by a particularly hungry fox.
(Image: flameia)
Medicinal
It’s thought that raspberries originated in Eastern Asia where they were used to clean teeth and cure sore eyes and throats. Don’t worry, they didn’t rub berries in their eyes. In fact they weren’t bothered about the berries at all. The roots and blossoms were all that were used back then. Thank goodness we discovered the berries were brilliant too.
Marginally less rude
Ever wondered why blowing a raspberry is called blowing a raspberry? Thank those good ole Cockneys. A raspberry tart is rhyming slang for fart. Unless you see it on a desert menu.
Mmmm
They. Are. Delicious. Straight from the bush, covered in cream, made into jam, mashed into sauces and blitzed up in smoothies. I don’t care how I eat them, I just want to eat them.
So there they are, five facts about raspberries that you didn’t know five minutes ago. Well, except maybe the last one.
Now you know a bit more about them, off you pop and eat as many as you can while they are in season. Or you can tie them round a wild horse or two if you get a bit bored of eating them.
