Raspberry is a popular plant grown in gardens and smallholdings for its sharp, tasty fruit.
The raspberry is a deciduous shrub with finely spined, woody stems called canes.
It can grow up to two meters high and produces small white or pinkish flowers in May, these flowers are followed in June and July by large, cone shaped, red-pink berries.
How To Gather And Store Rapberry
Raspberry can be easily grown in the garden and will produce an abundance of fruit.
Gather the leaves of the bush in spring before it goes into flower, use fresh or dry and store in an air tight jar.
Gather berries in late summer when ripe, berries can be frozen for future use as they are hard to dry without rotting occurring.
Raspberry Benefits
Raspberry benefits: We have been using raspberries in the kitchen for centuries, they are extremely tasty and contain high levels of vitamins A, B,C and E, they also contain a component which helps eliminate harmful cancer causing carcinogens.
Raspberries are mostly enjoyed alone with cream and sugar or used as a component in desserts but in-fact they are also a great accompaniment to meats, especially pork.
We are familiar with the use of raspberry in this country as a natural medicine, perhaps the best known use of it was in raspberry leaf tea, which has been used to aid a poor digestion, ease the runs, and act as a tonic for the female reproductive system for hundreds of years.
Raspberry is also useful in the treatment of skin irritations, sore throats and gums and fluid retention.
Organic Loose Raspberry Leaf For Herbal Remedies
Raspberry Remedies
Raspberry sore throat gargle: Take 500g of raspberries, wash and place in a pan, add a litre of white wine vinegar, cover, place in fridge and leave to infuse for two weeks. Strain and use the juice as a gargle to calm a sore throat.
Raspberry leaf tea: Take a teaspoon of fragmented raspberry leaves, place in a mug and pour on boiling water. Cover and leave to infuse for up to ten minutes, sweeten with some honey if desired and drink in the mornings and evenings to help relieve an upset stomach or urine infection and if female, to help maintain a healthy reproductive system.
Soothing skin wash: Take two teaspoons of crushed raspberry leaf, add to a pan and pour on a pint of boiling water, cover and infuse until cool, use mixture dabbed onto skin to sooth irritations and help heal small cuts and grazes.
Raspberry Leaf Tea
Warnings For Using Raspberry Home Plant Remedies
Do not use if pregnant, consult midwife first.
Do not take if using 'ant abuse' or any medication which lower the blood sugar levels.
Raspberry Bushes Should Not Be Planted With Certain Plants
Raspberry plants should not be planted where potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants or bulbs have previously been grown - without prior fumigation of the soil.
These crops are hosts for a fungus that can stay in the soil for many years and can infest the raspberry crop
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