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RAVES FOR RASPBERRIES
In a national survey consumers picked raspberries as their #2 fruit, just behind strawberries. Why? It's the uniquely wonderful raspberry flavor: sweet, tart, and delicious. CLICK HERE for information about our consumer study.

Raspberry History

There seems to be no written evidence that raspberries were cultivated until after the dark ages in Europe with the first written mention being found in a book on herbal medicine dated 1548. Raspberries began to be grown more widely in Europe and North America in the 19th century when many new varieties such as the loganberry and boysenberry were developed through either accidental or intentional crossbreeding. Currently, the leading commercial producers of raspberries include United States, Poland, Germany, Yugoslavia and Chile.

Medicinal Uses
The leaves can be used fresh or dried in herbal and medicinal teas. They have an astringent flavour, and in herbal medicine are claimed to be effective in regulating menses.

Health Benefits:
Red raspberry leaf tea has been used for hundreds of years by women throughout their pregnancy to ease the labor pain, to avoid miscarriage, and to improve the milk supply.

For more than 2,000 years, red raspberry was considered a minor healer, beneath blackberry. In the 1940’s it emerged from blackberry’s shadow and replaced it in herbal healing. It became the herb for pregnant women.

Physicians prescribe a number of red raspberry preparations for morning sickness, uterine irritability, and threatened miscarriage. Red raspberry is also included in many herbal pregnancy blends in the United States.

Red raspberry leaves contain tannins, which are astringent and help explain its traditional use as a diarrhea treatment.

Raspberry tea is one of the best herbal teas for pregnancy: to relieve nausea, prevent hemorrhage, reduce pain, and ease childbirth.

The leaves of raspberry is used fresh or dried as herbal teas to regulate menstrual cycles and to decrease heavy menstrual flow.

The fresh juice, mixed with little honey, makes an excellent beverage, and has been taken to reduce fever.

Externally, because of its astringent qualities, raspberry tea is used as a gargle, mouthwash for bleeding gums and other oral inflammations. Raspberry tea may help relieve urinary irritation, and sooth the kidneys and the entire urinary tract. Raspberries may help normalize glucose levels and therefore may be helpful to people with diabetes.
Raspberries contain an antioxidant ellagic acid ( one of the most powerful anti-oxidants) which protects your cells from becoming damaged and slows the growth of abnormal cells.

Fun Facts about Raspberries

Health & Nutrition Information
Raspberries contain significant amounts of polyphenol antioxidants such as anthocyanin pigments linked to potential health protection against several human diseases. The aggregate fruit structure contributes to its nutritional value, as it increases the proportion of dietary fiber, placing it among plant foods with the highest fiber contents known, up to 20% fiber per total weight.

Raspberries are a rich source of vitamin C, with 30 mg per serving of 1 cup (about 50% daily value), manganese (about 60% daily value) and dietary fiber (30% daily value). Contents of B vitamins 1-3, folic acid, magnesium, copper and iron are considerable in raspberries.

Raspberries rank near the top of all fruits for antioxidant strength, particularly due to their dense contents of ellagic acid (from ellagotannins), quercetin, gallic acid, anthocyanins, cyanidins, pelargonidins, catechins, kaempferol and salicylic acid. Yellow raspberries and others with pale-colored fruits are lower in anthocyanins.

Due to their rich contents of antioxidant vitamin C and the polyphenols mentioned above, raspberries have an ORAC value (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) of about 4900 per 100 grams, including them among the top-ranked ORAC fruits. Cranberries and wild blueberries have around 9000 ORAC units and apples average 2800.

The following anti-disease properties have been isolated in experimental models. Although there are no clinical studies to date proving these effects in humans, preliminary medical research shows likely benefit of regularly consuming raspberries against:

• inflammation
• pain
• cancer
• cardiovascular disease
• diabetes
• allergies
• age-related cognitive decline
• degeneration of eyesight with aging

When asked to rank berries by their health benefits, raspberries came in third, behind blueberries and cranberries – no surprise since the nutrition benefits of those two berries have been bolstered by significant nutrition research and years of consumer promotion.

Raspberries provide important health benefits. Raspberries rank in the top 5 antioxidant-high fruits. Antioxidants are believed to help prevent and repair oxidative stress, a process that damages cells within the body and has been linked to the development of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Raspberries are also high in ellagic acid, which may slow the
growth of certain cancer cells. Other raspberry benefits: One serving of raspberries has only 70 calories but provides 50% of a day’s requirement for vitamin C, 32% of fiber, 6% of folate, 6% of magnesium, 5% of potassium and 4% each of calcium, niacin, B6, phosphorus and zinc . That 1 cup serving has only 1 gram of fat, no saturated or transfats, no cholesterol and no sodium.
Research projects at key universities, including Tufts University, the University of Toronto and the University of Montpellier, France, are underway to determine more about the health benefits of red raspberries.

Anthocyanins are found in fresh and frozen berries, but not in processed foods.

A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found anthocyanins were almost undetectable in canned foods, bread, cereals, and baby foods containing berries, even in baby foods prepared from fruits high in anthocyanins, such as blueberries.

This may be due to anthocyanins' unique chemical structure, which renders them unstable even at a neutral pH and therefore much more susceptible to destruction during processing than other phytonutrients, such as proanthocyanidins. To give your children the full health benefits of berries, purchase fresh or frozen berries and purée them.

Nutrition Facts   Raw Raspberries Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) Energy 60 kcal 260 kJ Carbohydrates 14.7 g - Sugars 5.4 g - Dietary fibre 8 g Fat.8 g - saturated 0 g - monounsaturated .1 g - polyunsaturated .5 g Protein 1.5 g Vitamin A equiv. 1 µg 0% - beta-carotene 120 µg 1% Vitamin C 54 mg 90% Calcium 3 mg 0% Iron 5 mg 40% Sodium 1 mg 0% Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient database

When Measuring Raspberries
       1 quart = 2 pints = 1 1/2 pounds weight (aproximate, affected by berry size and moisture)
       1 small basket = 1 pint = 12 oz. weight (frequently grocers sell ½ pints, 6 oz.)
       1 pint = 2 cups whole berries
       1 cup = about 6 ounces weight

Freezing Raspberries

This is the easiest, best tasting method and gives long storage.

• Clean the berries, rinse and drain excess water. This must be done gently, raspberries are the most delicate of all small fruits. If you pick your own, keep them clean, its OK and go straight to the container and to the freezer.

• Put in a bowl and sprinkle enough white sugar to lightly coat the berries. Gently stir or fold until sugar make a light glaze on the berries. Don't overdo this, just enough to spread sugar around and coat the berries. This helps protect the flavor during frozen storage. How much sugar? We like about 1/4 cup sugar to 4 cups cleaned berries. More or less to your taste. Raspberries are soft and can be frozen plain with no sugar but press down and smash to remove all air in the container. A key point to remember, air around the berries will allow "freezer burn". Freezer burn is a combination of moisture loss and oxidation, nasty.

• Pack in your choice of freezer containers or bags. Here is the key, get all the air out. Seal the container, remember no air in the container only berries. Ziplock bags work great. Better to ooze a little juice out as you close it than to leave air in the bag. A neat method we have used is to use the plastic foam type hot drink cups, just load them up and snap on the top and in the freezer. A handy benefit later is just set the cup out to thaw, use as needed and just toss the cup away, no muss mess or cleanup, very nice.

• Colder is better in storage. Ten degrees below zero is recommended.