Kitchen Garden Forum

i noticed on another threat that Lizzie was recommending tayberries and said they were somewhere between a blackberry and a raspberry. I've got 3 blackberry bushes and wonder whether I should swap one for a tayberry for more variety. What is the flavour like? Can you eat them raw like raspberries, or are they slightly tart and best cooked like blackberries. And are the bushes very prolific, fruitwise? (My blackberries always seem to be loaded but in some years their flavour is disappointing and I wondered whether a tayberry might be a better fruit to grow to include in mixed fruit compotes, etc?)

Hi Primrose,
I would say that a tayberry is definitely worth growing.
The fruits are usually large, about twice the size of a raspberry, and more elongated than either rasp or blackberry. They are slightly fuzzy like a raspberry and when fully ripe turn a very deep purply-red. The core stays in the berry when you pick, like a blackberry.
They are lovely to eat fresh, but best when fully ripe, otherwise they can be quite tart. The flavour is very aromatic, like an intense raspberry and they are superb for eating fresh, freezing, or cooking. They make particularly good jam - even the amount of sugar in jam can't overwhelm their fruitiness.
They crop really well, though the plant needs a couple of years to get properly established. When it is, they are usually very high yielding for the amount of space the canes take up. I grow mine by weaving the canes in & out of 3 parallel wires, new canes one side, old to the other; they fruit on last year's canes. The thorns can be a little vicious, but well worth it.
Hope this helps,
Vivien

only problem is the blackbirds love them every garden should have one

Blackbird or Tayberry Richard?
JB.

We've got some tayberries and they're definitely worth growing, but even better are the cultivated blackberries - definitely our star performer for fruits and taste last year.

I like tayberries more than blackberries. I only planted my bush last year but got a small crop out of them. None of which got home.....

They can be a bit tart when not fully ripe. My one tastes best when the berries are the colour of a deep ruby (i have expensive tastes in jewellry)

They are a good doer, need very little care and need feeding with calcified seaweed or blood fish and bone twice a year.

Definitely recommend them

Loganberries are good too.

I planted a loganberry a couple of years ago but realised it was going to take up more space than I really had available for it, so don't want to repeat the mistake with a tayberry. Do you think it is likely to take up more space than the blackberry plant it will possibly replace? And will tayberry berries thrive & ripen against a north facing fence, which is where it would be?

Hi Primrose,
I have a friend who has a space problem and her Tayberry grows up 4' and is then trained on wires she limits herself to either 3 or 4 trailers on wire. The 4' only gets the odd fruit and I suspect that she takes those off. Not ideal I know but better than none at all.
JB

Nope.....you need to put a tayberry on a wire as you would with blackberries and raspberries. You grow them the same way.

My tayberry is between my greenhouse and Grockies shed (about 4ft) and it ripens fine even though a little shaded.