Sunday, December 28, 2008

Feeling Fruity Why Not Try the Lesser Know Fruit the Tayberry

By KC Kudra

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were to cross a blackberry and a raspberry? The answer, which we have thanks to a couple of Scottish botanists, is the tayberry a large reddish purple berry.

Originally cultivated in 1962 by David Mason and David Jennings of the Scottish Crops Research Institute, Invergowrie, Scotland the tayberry is a wonderful cross-involving a raspberry and a blackberry. It is a summer berry usual baring fruit in the months of July and August and is rather delicious both cooked and eaten fresh of the cultivated shrub in the genus Rubus of the family Rosaceae.

The Tayberry looks at first glance like a blackberry, but all it takes is one taste to know this is no ordinary blackberry. The tayberry has a tart bite thanks to its raspberry heritage, which sets it apart. This is a surprising but deliciously welcome newcomer to the fruits in your local market.

Tayberries make a wonderful pie and are delicious eaten fresh. Tayberry jam is great for toast or sandwiches. In season, perhaps you may want to bake a tayberry pie to take along on a picnic.

Try adding tayberries to a bowl of yogurt or ice cream, or incorporate them into fruit salads and smoothies for something a little different. In fact, you can use tayberries anywhere you would ordinarily use blackberries or raspberries. Tayberries are an exciting addition to your morning cereal, baked goods and of course, they are wonderful just eaten as they are - there's no wrong answer to the question of how to enjoy these fruits.

You may want to bring along a nice bottle of tayberry wine to your wonderful evening dinner. It is called tayberry because they were developed near the Valley of the Tay River. This wine is delicious and very vibrant red in color. It is a tart, yet sweet wine. You can enjoy it with a beef stew, roast, and other meats such as steak and wild game, such as duck. You can also enjoy it with hors d'oeuvres and a strong cheddar cheese. It is a fairly priced bottle of wine running about $15.

Besides it's one of a kind flavor, the tayberry also contains a lot of nutritional value. Tayberries are a good source of vitamin C, bioflavonoids, folate, and fiber. The tayberry fruit and leaves are also employed as a home remedy for diarrhea.

There is another old home remedy and that is to chew on the leaves to help cure bleeding gums. They say that they have faithfully adopted this in Scotland over 2000 years ago. It is still common today as well.

Tayberries are a fruit with a large number of uses - food, wine and home remedies. This fruit is a little bit different, making it an exciting addition to your recipes. The tayberry is a real treat and the uses you can find for this delicious little fruit are limited only by the bounds of your imagination. - 15634

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