The raspberry is my favourite British native fruit - strictly speaking, it is green on the bushes just now, gradually ripening in the warmer weather until the red berries are ready from June onwards. Raspberries are grown a lot in fruit farms especially in areas of Scotland, but you can find plenty wild too.



If you look closely you can see the little red raspberries on the canes in the front right of the picture.
I used to help my family go out and pick these wild in the countryside in the summer holidays. This was an important summer task. Then we would make them into jam to save for the autumn and winter. We would have some fresh raspberries as well, perhaps with cream.


This was one of my favourite summer puddings. To make it, you gently simmer the raspberries in a pan. You can add sugar if you like, but they are already sweet and juicy. The you prepare the crumble mixture by rubbing together flour and butter - some people add sugar to this mixture as well. Then you place the raspberries in an oven dish and sprinkle the crumble on top in a thick layer. Finally bake the dish in a moderately hot oven for about twenty five minutes.

You can serve this raspberry crumble with cream or ice cream or custard if you like.

If you enjoyed this column, you could read this column on British baking, or try my Scottish food lesson




By Wild Raspberry (Rubis idaeus) by Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126326045
By Raspberry patch by Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138368927