In the kitchen

A hybrid of blackberry and raspberry, the tayberry was bred by Derek Jennings and is named after the River Tay. When ripe, it is exceedingly soft, making it difficult to machine harvest. As a result, it is rarely commercially available, but is a delicious garden fruit. Its berries ripen in mid to late summer and have a tart, sweet taste. Like their parent fruits, they can be served fresh with sugar and cream or made into crumbles and jam. The tayberry can also be made into wine or macerated to give gin a rich, summery flavour.