Dewberry

Name: Dewberry — the common name for several trailing, low-growing brambles in the genus Rubus, such as the European dewberry (Rubus caesius) and the North American southern dewberry (Rubus trivialis). They are close relatives of the blackberry, described on its own page, and the name is applied loosely to any trailing blackberry-type bramble.

Description

Dewberries grow wild across Europe, western Asia and North America, scrambling along the ground rather than standing upright in arching canes like a true blackberry. The fruit is a cluster of small, juicy drupelets, usually dark purple to black and often covered with a pale, dusty bloom — the “dew” that is usually given as the origin of the name.

Because the plants are low and trailing, dewberries were traditionally gathered from hedgerows and field edges rather than farmed, and they remain mostly a foraged and backyard fruit. Where they are grown commercially, they ripen earlier than most blackberries, and they have been used as parents in some blackberry hybrids.

Main nutrition value

Like other brambles, dewberries are a source of dietary fibre and vitamin C, with plant pigments (anthocyanins) responsible for their dark colour.

How best to be consumed

Dewberries are at their best fresh and fully ripe, since they are small, soft and do not keep well once picked.

1. Eat fresh and ripe, straight from the plant or after a gentle rinse just before serving.
2. Stir into yoghurt, porridge or cereal, or scatter over a green salad for a tart-sweet note.
3. Cook into jam, crumbles, pies or sauces, where their slightly firmer texture holds up well.
4. Freeze on a tray, then bag, to keep a small foraged harvest for smoothies and baking.
5. If foraging, pick away from busy roadsides and treated land, and wash well.

Overconsumption could cause…

Dewberries are safe in ordinary amounts; the points below mostly apply to very large servings.

1. Digestive discomfort, such as bloating or loose stools, from a large amount of fibre and fruit sugar at once.
2. Added sugar rather than the fruit itself becoming the issue when they are eaten mostly as jam, pies or desserts.
3. Mistaken identification when foraging — confirm the plant is a bramble before eating wild fruit.
4. Seeds that can bother people with sensitive digestion, as with blackberries.

GroupsBerriesRose family (Rosaceae)Fresh

Related foodsBlackberryBoysenberryLoganberryRaspberryServiceberryStrawberry

Wikipedia — Dewberry, used for origin, naming and history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewberry