It’s finally that time of year again, my favorite time of year—RASPBERRY SEASON! The raspberry is one of my favorite foods, and there’s really nothing quite like a freshly picked, locally farmed raspberry. In addition to its tart-sweetness and rich magenta hues, raspberries also have some awesome health benefits that just add even more to their desirability. Just like the strawberry post I did a few weeks ago, I wanted to take some time to talk a little bit about the raspberry, and what it can do for you!
Raspberries come in a range of colors, including white, red, black, purple, pink, yellow, and orange, and include two hybrids, the loganberry and the boysenberry. They are soft and sort of melt in your mouth as you eat them, which seems to only intensify their flavor in my opinion! Locally grown here in New Hampshire, raspberries come into season from mid-July into August, but in California, where most grocery store varieties are grown, they are in season from July to mid-October. (How lucky are they to have such a long season there!).
These wonderful little bush-ripened treats are so easy to incorporate into your daily meals this summer too, as you can eat them raw, pep up your cold summer drinks by adding a handful, or incorporate them to almost endless possible dishes and desserts like in parfaits, cookies, as a topping for salad and yogurt, or as a delicious spreadable jam.
This fruit also has the highest antioxidant concentration of all fruits, so harmful free radicals don’t stand a chance with you this summer! Raspberries also have a pretty impressive dietary fiber content, as 20% of the fruit’s total weight consists of dietary fiber, keeping you fuller longer, keeping your digestion healthy and regular, and helping to prevent colon cancer and constipation. The trace mineral manganese also acts to keep your metabolic rate high, helping you burn off more fat. As we learned before in my strawberry post, this fiber in fruit is also means that blood sugars are controlled with the slow-release of the natural sugars as you digest.
Against fighting wrinkles and aging, raspberries are also king. Full of the powerful antioxidant and assistant collagen-builder properties of Vitamin C, they prevent age spots and discoloration, and help to fill in wrinkles, and the oils in raspberries have interestingly shown to be a good sun protectant factor. Raspberries also can be used to make a facial mask to freshen up skin and make it feel tight and lively; blend smoothly one cup of plain yogurt and two cups of raspberries and apply it to your entire face for 15 minutes, and rinse.
As I mentioned before, raspberries have incredible antioxidant concentration, which are used to help prevent the breakdown of cellular membranes all around your body. One of these antioxidant is ellagic acid, whose key substances include important flavonoids that are broken down into anthocyanins, which give raspberries their color and have some antimicrobial properties. This means that raspberries can aid in the fight against or prevent of microbial infections from bacteria and fungi, which are most prevalent in vaginal infections and sometimes even Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
While raspberries have incredible phytochemical properties, let’s not forget that raspberries are just chock-full of your daily required vitamins and minerals! As we know, raspberries have incredible antioxidant and Vitamin C content, but they are also very plentiful in B vitamins like riboflavin, niacin, and folate, as well as in minerals like magnesium, manganese, potassium, and copper. Each of these have their own array of benefits and usages to your body on their own and in combinations of each other, so how nice of raspberries to package them all up for you in a handful of pink and red!
I really could go on and on about what I love about raspberries as a nutrition student, but I’m sure you can relate to me as to why I love them just being a fellow human with taste buds and a love for local food! I picked up my raspberries at the last Portsmouth market from White Gate Farm, but you should also be able to pick them up at your next market from farms like Applecrest Farm, Heron Pond Farm, Wake Up Robin, and Shagbark Farm. And be sure to always be in the conversation with your farmer about your seasonal picks with any growing questions or comments! They love to hear from you! As always, enjoy the wonderful summer pick!
I’ve grown backyard raspberries near Milford for 20+ years and never had problems from birds or critters (although plenty of problems from bugs, especially that new fruit fly).
But this year my squirrels and chipmunk populations have exploded and the trail camera has found them raiding the bushes and robbing me blind. I may not have enough for raspberry jam!
Is this a problem in other parts of NH?