27th July: Day of the Blackberry

According to the French Revolutionary calendar, today is the day of the Blackberry (That's the fruit, not the mobile phone thingy.) Here are 10 things you might not know about blackberries.

1. Technically, they are not berries. They are an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets.
2. There are over 375 species of blackberry.
3. The plants are food to many different animals. Some caterpillars, and grazing mammals like deer eat the leaves. Many small mammals and birds eat the berries, not to mention humans, who have been eating them for thousands of years.
4. Blackberries aren't the only human food a blackberry shrub can produce - you can also get blackberry Honey, which is medium to dark with a fruity taste.
5. Blackberries are good for you - they are rich in dietary fibre, and vitamins C and K. The seeds contain oil rich in omega-3 and protein. There is a school of thought that says eating dark coloured foods in general is good because the chemicals that give them the dark colour include antioxidants.
6. The country that produces the most blackberries in the world is Mexico. Most of the crop is exported to North America and Europe.
7. They are related to raspberries but are not the same. Aside from the colour, a way to tell which you've picked is to note whether the core of the fruit comes away with the fruit or not. If it doesn't, you're got a raspberry. If it does, it's a blackberry.
8. In the western US, they use the term "caneberry" to refer to both blackberries and raspberries.
9. The plants are very dependent on Bees to pollinate the flowers and produce the fruit. Even a small change in conditions, such as a rainy day or a day too hot for bees to work after early morning, can reduce the quality of the fruit.
10. Folklore in the United Kingdom says that blackberries should not be picked after Old Michaelmas Day (11 October) as the devil will have made them unfit to eat, by stepping, spitting, or fouling on them. There is science behind this as the fruit can become infected by moulds in wetter and cooler weather, which would make them unpleasant to eat and possibly even toxic.