Rubus idaeus Versailles Bio - Raspberry

The Versailles Raspberry from Organic Agriculture is a repeat variety that produces fruit in early summer (June-July) and again in early autumn (September-October).  Plants produce very large raspberries, light red in colour, weighing 10 to 12 grams, which are conical in shape. They are very aromatic and of excellent flavour. Its firm fruits have a good shelf life and last longer than those of traditional varieties. The non-prickly canes of this raspberry bush make harvesting fruits easier.

The Versailles Organic Raspberry belongs to the rose family, it is a related to brambles and wild roses. The wild raspberry is native to Europe and temperate Asia, where it grows in cool climates in the company of elderberry, beech or rowan, especially in mountain undergrowth, but also on the plains. It is a deciduous shrub with upright canes and forms bushes which are 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in) in all directions. The canes are biennial, each having the unusual characteristic of dying after fruiting. It spreads from a perennial sucker stump, which produces new canes armed with small prickles every year. It has green leaves which are white-green and hairy underneath. The flowering is very nectariferous. The white flowers are small, 1 to 2 cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) in diameter, grouped in small clusters of 10 to 12, and appear in two waves in the Versailles variety: in April - May and then in July - August. The fruits are formed in small agglomerated drupes, not adhering to the receptacle *, detaching very easily when ripe. The fruiting is abundant and starts in June and lasts until mid-October, with a slight pause in the middle of summer.

The fruits are best consumed or used fresh, as soon as they are picked, as they do not keep for very long.  Production reaches its normal level in the third year after planting. One plant can produce fruit for about 10 years. The Versailles Organic Raspberry can be associated with non-repeat varieties such as 'Glen Ample' to obtain a continuous harvest throughout the summer.

The fruits are used to make jams or to garnish pies. Raspberry cultivation seems to date back to the end of the Middle Ages. In the forest, five to ten years after a beech felling, wild raspberries appeared in the vacant space, producing fruit for three to four years. Raspberries are not very high in energy, they contain two specific sugars, levulose and fructose, very little sucrose. The fruits also contain ellagic acid, tannins, vitamin C, and are a good source of potassium. It is also a medicinal plant whose young shoots and buds are used in gemmotherapy.

*This non-adherence is also a distinguishing feature between raspberries in the broad sense and brambles (including Rubus fruticosus, our European blackberry) whose receptacle remains on the fruit.