About our berries

What we call a raspberry is a bundle of around 100 drupelets, round pieces of fruit flesh surrounding a seed. Their flowers are not as big or showy as their blackberry and hybrid cousins, but the fruit is a popular Summer favourite. Unlike blackberries, the 'torus' separates from the fruit when you pick it. Raspberries are picked when they are strong in colour, sweetness and flavour. They have a short shelf life, and can be easily frozen for year round supply.
Raspberries can be eaten straight from the farm gate in the car on your way home. If any survive the car trip, we think they are best served fresh and straight from the punnet. If you insist on fancying them up, simple favourites include a sprinkle of icing sugar, cream, ice-cream, yogurt, or make a smoothie with any kind of milk or juice.
Raspberries play well with other plump berries in a Summer fruit salad.

Silvanberries are also called 'bramble berries'. They are an early ripening kind of blackberry. They were developed in Australia in the 1970s by the Department of Agriculture in Silvan, Victoria. They are a complex cross between Marionberries and Boysenberries. Their advantages include that they can handle heat without turning to mush, are slower ripening so there is not such urgency to pick them as with some other brambles, they have a long season, and crop heavily. Like all our plump berries they are juicy, delicious, high in vitamin C and freeze well.

Marionberries are one of our blackberry cultivars. They were developed in the 1940s in the USA by a government breeding program, trialled in Marion County in Oregon, and were released for sale in 1956. Marionberries are now the most common commercially grown blackberry variety in the US. Marionberry pie is the official state pie of Oregon.
Marionberries are delicious fresh or cooked into your favourite dessert. They are described as having a 'tart, earthy sweetness' and are sometimes called the 'Cabernet of blackberries.'

These late bloomers are as showy as the other blackberry cultivars, but have a lovely pink flower instead of white. As they bloom late, they tend to ripen in the later part of the season (late Summer, early Autumn). They grow from thick floricanes (second year canes). Not being prickly makes them much easier to handle than some of our other berries.

Loganberries are one of our raspberry - blackberry hybrids (the other one we grow is Tay). Loganberries were a happy accidental hybrid, that grew in the garden of US Supreme Court Judge Logan in 1881, who was so excited that he named them after himself. According to the publication 'Important Men of 1913', he later developed a mammoth blackberry cultivar on purpose - the 'largest blackberry ever known'. In fact, the loganberry happened by accident while Judge Logan was experimenting to try to develop an improved blackberry cultivar.
Another fun fact about loganberries, is that due to their high vitamin C content, they were used by the British navy at the beginning of the 20th century to prevent sailors from getting scurvy.
Loganberries are larger than raspberries (up to 5cm) and a wine-red colour. Our variety grows on thornless canes, which makes them easier to pick than their Tay cousin.

Tayberries were developed by Derek Jennings in Scotland in the 1970s and named after the River Tay. They are a hybrid between a raspberry and a blackberry. Derek worked for 5 years to develop them.
Tayberries are large and purple in colour when ripe, cone-shaped and up to 4cm long! They are larger, sweeter more aromatic, and less acidic than the Loganberry, another raspberry/blackberry cross. Their canes are prickly and their core stays with the berry when they are picked. They can only be harvested by hand, which suits our small farm context.
We have many Tayberry plants growing on our farm. They can be eaten fresh, made into pies or jams, or brewed into wine. They have a relatively short season, so get in quick when we let you know they're ready!

We grow a diverse range of deciduous highbush blueberries on our farm. Our patches are mixed with different varieties, and we're not certain which are which. We do know that they ripen in mid Summer.
Blueberries are some of the most versatile of berries. They taste excellent on their own - and one person can easily devour a punnet in record time.
Like all berries, there is a popular perception that bigger is better, which we dispute. Sometimes the big fruit has been pushed to grow quickly and you don't get the intense flavour of a smaller berry. But we reckon you'll be able to make up your own minds about your preference for big or small berries. We'll aim to cater for everyone.

Our gooseberries are red and thornless, which means they are most likely the 'Captivator' variety, originating from France. The French name for gooseberry is groseille à maquereau, translated as 'mackerel berries', due to their use in a sauce for mackerel in old French cuisine. There is debate about whether or not the gooseberry is named after geese, and those who argue that it is, suggest that it could be because gooseberries make an excellent sauce for serving with a fattened goose. Others suggest that geese like to eat the berries themselves. We haven't got geese on the farm yet just in case that's correct.
Normally we will expect to be thinning off some of the unripened fruit, which can be cooked up into gooseberry recipes, so that the remaining fruit gets big and plump when ripe. Ripe red gooseberries can be eaten raw or used in your favourite recipes. They taste a little like a table grape.

Jostaberries are a complex cross between blackcurrants and gooseberries. Big, juicy, with a tart burst they are a fun addition to any fruit salad, Summer pudding or berry medley.

Red currants are a true many-seeded berry.
Red currants are closely related to the black currant, and are in the gooseberry family.
Red currants are tart. Red currant jelly is a popular accompaniment to meats in the UK, and can also be used to glaze pastries and open flans. They are an essential ingredient in summer pudding (basically a layered mix of white bread, mixed berries and berry juice), and are also used in the Danish sweet Rødgrød med fløde (meaning 'red porridge with cream').

Black currants are particularly high in vitamin C. They can be eaten raw but are usually cooked into sweet or savoury dishes. They are strong and tart in flavour and work well with raspberries and other berries in a summer pudding, or paired with apple in a crumble or pie.
Tasmania's cool climate is well suited to blackcurrant production. Blackcurrant cordial is a popular drink. When CocaCola changed the recipe used to produce Cascade blackcurrant cordial syrup to one that is widely used globally, there was local uproar. These days the biggest commercial producer of blackcurrants, Westerway, produces blackcurrant cordial syrup using the traditional recipe that many Tasmanians are familiar with and prefer. You might make your own blackcurrant cordial syrup with our blackcurrants - do you have a traditional family recipe?
During World War II the British government encouraged the blackcurrant industry and all of the currants grown under the government's scheme were made into black currant cordial or syrup and given to children for free to keep them from getting scurvy.
In the 1900s blackcurrants were banned in the USA because the plants were known to host a rust that was threatening the logging industry.

We grow Morello and Montmorency varieties of tart cherries. Neither is technically a berry - they are a drupe.
What are tart cherries good for? Any time you are going to cook a cherry, the tart version is better than the sweet. They need to be cooked to suit most palates (but we eat them straight off the trees). Heat them up in a saucepan and serve with custard or ice-cream for a sweet complement to the sour - anyone can do this! If you are feeling more adventurous, try baking a pie, crumble, tart, cheesecake, black forest cake or clafoutis. Preservers can make cherry jam, sweet or savoury sauces, or an abundance of other options.