The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: Rispa on April 06, 2023, 05:18:50 PM

Here's part of my list of berries to try
[ ] Sherbert berry
[ ] Rubus ‘ItSaul Summer’ Everbearing Raspberry
[ ] Indian summer rasberry (Rubus idaeus) (Willis)
[ ] Dewberry
[ ] Mysore rasberry
[ ] Dorman red rasberry
[ ] Rubus phoenicolaseus (Japanese wine berry)
[ ] Rubus spectabillis (salmon berry)
[ ] Rubus indicus (Indian rasberry)
[ ] Rubus Californica (California blackberry)

I spent most of my life in the Pacific Northwest, and I doubt you would be happy with the Salmonberry. It tends to grow prolifically on the coast - in the margins - roadsides, ditches, clearcuts, etc. It's fruit is light orange in the limited light conditions you often find it, and gets that redish burnishing you see in some pics only when out in full sun all day, where it tends to struggle. While I definitely ate plenty of them when I stumbled across ripe ones, I never set out to pick them as they were almost always too bland to really enjoy, the best ones were still not nearly as flavorful as blackberries, thimbleberries, wild strawberries, raspberries or blackcaps. They generally had a very low amount of sugar and not a very distinct flavor. Also being from the PNW coast, where they get LOTS of rain and very moderate temps, I would imagine they would have a difficult time growing in TX.

While the later comments about growth apply to thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) as well, they actually do have a very nice flavor similar to raspberry with reasonable sweetness (and no thorns). The main issue with them, is that the fruit is incredibly soft. They always went straight into the mouth. Picking into a container virtually guarantees having a pile of red goo. Perhaps if you could cultivate, and pick them cleanly enough that you could dump the goo into a juicer without needing to sort or clean, you could get a very tasty juice for jelly etc.