Week one of black raspberries is coming to a close! Five weeks to go if we’re lucky! The elderflowers are starting to shed, and the gooseberries are slowly but surely ripening for us to look forward to!
Black raspberries are an excellent source of vitamin C and have more antioxidants than blueberries! There’s even been some indication of them reducing the risk of colon cancer.
The raspberry leaf is also a diverse and useful part! Magically they are also useful to represent things such as healing and protection, and medicinally they can be used in teas to assist in the treatment of things such as cardiovascular disorders, intestinal distress, or uterine/menstrual discomfort and irregularities!
From a magical perspective black raspberries (like standard raspberries) are useful for spells focusing on healing, protection, wealth, and prosperity. I wouldn’t use these as a key feature in anything romantic (as I might with red raspberries), but when it comes to health related witchcraft I would absolutely choose these over their red cousins! Taking their strong dark hue into account these berries can also serve as a yummy energetically neutralizing agent in any spell structure. I also find they make excellent offerings for any land based spirit or deity! Additionally, if you work with a sovereignty deity and live somewhere where these are native I highly recommend trying them out as an offering!
Things black raspberries can be used for: syrups, ice cream, cookies, cake, cake or pie filling, juices, jams, and so much more! Keep in mind these have a much higher seed to flesh ratio, so they will leave a lot of seeds in anything they’re left whole in!
Something to consider when enjoying any variety of raspberry is the concept of patience. Of long term development and growth. A first year raspberry cane produces no flowers or fruit, it simply exists to grow as tall as it can and help absorb nutrients to strengthen its roots and structure so that it can produce fruit in the following year. That tasty little berry took a long time getting itself ready so it could develop just right, and that’s something we can take into account when serving, cooking, or otherwise utilizing these happy lil friends in any form of craft.
