There aren't many fruits that you can just
pop out to the side of the road and pick
until your heart’s (stomach’s) content.
Fortunately, the blackberry is one of such
fruits, and thousands of us take a trip out
every year to stock our bags full of the
tasty little berries, with the good intention
of creating a pie or crumble. Mostly
though, they get eaten long before they've
had time to fill a baking dish!
BLACKBERRIES
The blackberry is an edible fruit
produced by many species in the Rubus
genus in the Rosaceae family. What
distinguishes the blackberry from its
raspberry relatives is whether or not the
torus (receptacle or stem) ‘picks with’
(i.e. stays with) the fruit. When picking
a blackberry fruit, the torus does stay
with the fruit. With a raspberry, the
torus remains on the plant, leaving a
hollow core in the raspberry fruit.