Raspberries

With a long history in Europe and America, red raspberries have been a favorite among consumers from Medieval times.

Several hybrids have been cultivated, to the point that today there are several hundred different cultivars, and more than 20 are cultivated in Washington alone!

Red raspberries are a very nutritious fruit: they not only have a great taste, but also a very high content in health-promoting phytonutrients such as ellagic acid and anthocyanins, as well as high quantities of antioxidants and dietary fiber.

In addition to this, they are extemely easy to cultivate in your backyard (raspberry plants are extremely aggressive and can easily take over an entire garden if left unchecked, so you should have no problem growing several bushes).

Of the different cultivars, Rubus idaeus thrives in the relatively cool climate of the Pacific Northwest, where they are produced in a region extending from Salem,Oregon to the Fraser Valley, British Columbia.

Raspberry Primocanes

Raspberry production has been steadily increasing since 1800, and in modern times growth has accelerated even more, thanks to the introduction of highly efficient mechanical harvesters that eliminated the need for manual labor.

This, coupled with the fact that raspberry plants can produce fruit for decades, has lead to a constant increase in production that met at least an equal increase in demand, due to the increasing popularity of this fruit as a health supplement and addition to foods.

Other cultivars are grown east of the Cascade, where high temperatures often lead to smaller plants and less fruit: the most successful sites in this region are Yakima and Spokane (because of the relatively cooler climates).

One of the reasons of their success is the fact that raspberries are self-pollinating, meaning that pollen is transferred by bees to the same plant it came from, removing the need for a male and a female plant.

Despite the many raspberry cultivars, we can find two common families: summer and fall bearing plants. They are both grown in the Northwest, but have very different characteristics and fruit timing.

Summer bearing plants flower on primocanes (meaning "first-year canes") in August-September, then undergo a winter rest, to bloom and fruit during the following spring. After this, canes die, but during the fruiting of primocanes, new canes called "floricanes" start flowering and keep the plant alive for the following year.

Fall bearing plants, also called everbearing, bear fruit on primocanes from August to September, rest in winter, then produce a second set of fruit from June to July.