Is it a Blackberry, Raspberry, or Black Raspberry? Do you know the difference? 

A few weeks ago, we had dear friends visit. Our sons have been buddies since they were 3 and us mommas became great friends through their friendship. We were so excited when they told us they were coming to visit us! The boys were out back exploring, looking for bugs when they ran in to tell us they discovered a berry bush. Berries are my boy’s absolute favorite thing, so berries on a bush in the backyard? Well, it doesn’t get much better than that. I grew up in this house and I remember picking berries next door as a child, but I don’t remember ever having any berry trees in our yard. 

The boys told us that they thought it was a blackberry and a raspberry bush, and that’s exactly what it looked like. But the blackberries were much smaller than the blackberries you find in the store, and much less harry too. My friend did a little research and it turned out it wasn’t either of those, but a black raspberry. Did you know there was such a thing? In all my 39 years of life I did not know that there was a black raspberry, but that makes more sense out the loveable back raspberry ice-cream.

I started doing some research on our newfound berry bush and it turns out that black raspberries are rather rare and is like the narwhal of the berry world. Wow, that makes me feel like we have quite the little gem in our backyard, lol. They are also sometimes referred to a bear’s eye blackberry, black cap, black cap raspberry, and my favorite scotch cap. The taste is very similar to the French liquor, Chambord.

My son has been loving watching what looks like a raspberry turn to a black raspberry, anxiously waiting each day for this precious fruit to be ready to pick. Sadly, we went out to pick some yesterday and it appeared that an animal beat us to it. I hope there are more to come.

If you’re outside exploring your backyard and come across a berry bush, here’s how to tell if it’s a blackberry or black raspberry. Black berries are larger, have hair, and have a little bit of whole on the bottom. Black raspberries are pretty much identical to raspberries but black! But they taste much sweeter.

If you live in New England, I encourage you to get outside and hunt for these wild bushes. Summer is the season! Happy berry hunting 🙂