Organic Raspberry Marastar- Rubus idaeus

Rubus idaeus 'Marastar', from Organic Agriculture, is an excellent perpetual variety. This highly productive raspberry bears delicious red fruits that can be harvested from July to October. Its fruit is conical, of a good size and firmness, sweet and aromatic, with an appetising bright red colour. It is a stout plant that is particularly vigorous and sucker-producing. This hardy variety is quite resistant to diseases, making it perfect for amateur gardeners. Each plant will produce up to 3kg of fruit per year, or even more. It can also be grown in containers.

'Marastar' belongs to the Rosaceae family, and is a cousin of blackberries and wild roses. The wild raspberry is native to Europe and temperate Asia, where it grows in cool climates, often in the company of elderberry, beech, or mountain ash in wooded mountain areas. It also grows on plains. 'Marastar' is a cultivar from the nurseryman Marionnet, who is none other than the 'father' of the famous and delicious 'Mara des Bois' strawberry.

'Marastar' is a stout bush with upright stems, forming a bush about 1.1 to 1.3m (4ft) in all directions over time. The stems are biennial, each one dying after fruiting. It spreads from a perennial, sucker-producing stump, which produces new stems armed with small prickles every year. This deciduous bush loses its leaves in autumn. Its leaves are green on top, and white-green and tomentose on the underside. The flowering is honey-rich and popular with bees. The white flowers are small (1 to 2cm (1in) in diameter), grouped in clusters of 10 to 12. They appear continuously from April-May until early September. The fruits are made up of small agglutinated drupes that do not adhere to the receptacle*. They detach very easily when ripe. The fruiting is continuous, from July to October. The fruits should be eaten fresh or processed quickly (into jam, for example), as they do not keep very long. Production reaches its normal level in the third year after planting. A plant can produce fruit for around 10 years.

'Marastar' can be planted with other small fruit bushes such as currants or blackcurrants. The fruits can be used to make jams or to garnish pies. Raspberry cultivation seems to date back to the end of the Middle Ages. Raspberries contain levulose and fructose. They contain very little sucrose. The fruits contain ellagic acid, tannins, vitamin C, and are a good source of potassium. It is also a medicinal plant, with its young shoots and buds used in gemmotherapy.

*This non-adherence is also a distinguishing criterion between raspberries in the broad sense and blackberries (including Rubus fruticosus, the European blackberry), where the receptacle remains on the fruit.