RASPBERRY VINEGAR CORDIAL

This cordial is made to a traditional recipe, with just a hint of vinegar added to heighten the flavour on the palate. The taste is delicate yet full of the raspberry fruit flavour. Use it as a baste when roasting poultry. Pour it over ice cream, or mix with whipped, thickened cream and serve over strawberries. Deemed by many to be a blood purifier, others insist that it settles the stomach after a heavy meal. Enjoy in the usual manner with chilled water, soda water or lemonade, or drink hot as one would a herbal tea. Raspberry Vinegar can be mixed as a cocktail.

Raspberry Botanical: Rubus Idaeus (LINN.) Family: N.O. Rosaceae Synonyms: Raspbis. Hindberry. Bramble of Mount Ida. (Danish) Hindebar. (Dutch) Braamboss. (German) Hindbur. (Saxon) Hindbeer. Parts Used: Leaves, fruit. Constituents the Raspberry contains a crystallizable fruit-sugar, a fragrant volatile oil, pectin, citric and malic acids, mineral salts, colouring matter and water. The ripe fruit is fragrant, subacid and cooling: it allays heat and thirst, and is not liable to acetous fermentation in the stomach.

History

The Raspberry grows wild as far north as lat. 70 degrees, and southward it appears to have been abundant on Mount Ida, in Asia Minor, lat. 39 degrees 40'. It was known to the Ancients, and Linnaeus retained the classic name of Ida, with which it was associated by Dioscorides.

It was called in Greek Batos Idaia, and in Latin Rubus Idaea, the Bramble of Mount Ida. Gerard calls it Raspis or Hindberry, and Hindberry is a derivation of the Saxon name Hindbeer. "Twas only to hear the yorling sing, and pu' the crawflower round the spring, The scarlet hep and the hindberrie, and the nut that hang frae the hazel tree".

Cultivation

The well-known Raspberry, grown so largely for its fruit, grows wild in some parts of Great Britain. It is a native of many parts of Europe. The stems are erect and shrubby, biennial, with creeping perennial roots. It flowers in May and June in Europe. The Wild Raspberry differs from the cultivated variety mainly in its size.

The plant is generally propagated by suckers, though those raised from layers should be preferred, because they will be better rooted and not so liable to send out suckers. In preparing these plants their fibres should be shortened, but the buds which are placed at a small distance from the stem of the plant must not be cut off, as they produce the new shoots the following summer. Place the plants about 2 feet apart in the rows, allowing 4 or 5 feet between the rows. If planted too closely, without plenty of air between the rows, the fruit will not be so fine.

The most suitable soil is a good, strong loam. They do not thrive so well in a light soil. In Autumn, cut down all the old wood that has produced fruit in the summer and shorten the young shoots to about 2 feet in length. Dig the spaces between the rows well and dress with a little manure. Beyond weeding during the summer, no further care is needed. It is wise to form new plantations every three or four years, as the fruit on old plants is apt to deteriorate.

Medicinal Action and Uses
Astringent and stimulant

Raspberry Vinegar is an acid syrup made with the fruit-juice, sugar and white-wine vinegar, and when added to water forms an excellent cooling drink in summer, suitable also in feverish cases, where the acid is not an objection. It makes a useful gargle for relaxed, sore throat. Raspberries are high in fiber and vitamin C. Raspberry syrup dissolves the tartar of the teeth. A home-made wine, brewed from the fermented juice of ripe Raspberries, is anti-scrofulous. (scrofula n. morbid constitutional condition with glandular swellings and a tendency to consumption)

Raspberry Leaf Tea - made by the infusion of 1 oz. of the dried leaves in a pint of boiling water, is employed as a gargle for sore mouths, canker of the throat, and as a wash for wounds and ulcers. The leaves, combined with the powdered bark of Slippery Elm, make a good poultice for cleansing wounds, burns and scalds, removing proud flesh and promoting healing.

An infusion of Raspberry leaves, taken cold, is a reliable remedy for extreme laxity of the bowels. The infusion alone, or as a component part of injections, never fails to give immediate relief. It is useful in stomach complaints of children.

Raspberry Leaf Tea is valuable during parturition. (labour / childbirth). It should be drunk warm. The fruit is also utilized for dyeing purposes.