The Purple Flowering Raspberry

Today, while we were working on pond maintenance, we discovered a raspberry-like plant growing on the banks of the brook. The berries are about a half-inch wide and are velvety and soft. We were about to pick and eat a few when we realized that they were not a common raspberry. The leaves of the plant resemble grape leaves with five points to them, and the stems have no thorns and are covered in fuzz. The berries themselves are shaped like acorn tops and are wider at the base than normal raspberries.

Also, this is October, and its a bit later than raspberries usually fruit. So of course, I had to do some research. After typing 'what plant has leaves that look like grape leaves and berries that look like raspberries' into the search bar, I came upon a few things. Under the section where there are suggestions for things to buy, an image titled 'thimbleberries' ($7.99, Walmart) came up. But I sort of skipped over that part because usually, it doesn't give information. Under that, (after a section that asked "were you looking for moonseed?", which is a type of wild grape from Canada) was a forum from Houzz. (https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1493092/strange-raspberry-like-berry-identification). I clicked on it, and the first entry was about an experience similar to ours! It was titled 'Strange Raspberry-like Identification'. The first answer to the entry was "Thimbleberry" so I went and looked up thimbleberry, but I realized that these have white flowers instead of a pinkish purple. (Remember Thimbleberry, Walmart, $7.99?). The next comment in the discussion was from the first writer, who had the same question as I, the purple flowers. But the writer had gone a bit further than I had and probably searched 'what plant has leaves that look like grape leaves and berries that look like raspberries and has purple flowers'. Or something to that extent. Anyway, they included a link to the Connecticut botanical society, titled 'Rubus odoratus'. (http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/Plants/view/527. This website wasn't very detailed. I also noticed that the thimbleberry is Rubus Parvifloris, and the purple flowering raspberry is Rubus Odoratus, so they are related. The website descriptions and their first picture matched our plant, but the second picture didn't. (It actually looks like a totally different plant, like something in the nightshade family). So I searched even farther and came up with: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=m190and https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUOD. Both of these websites matched the description of our plant, and are a little more detailed. Just to make sure the plant actually was Rubus Odoratus or Purple Flowering Raspberry, I searched if they grow in Vermont, which they do. Doing this I stumbled upon this (http://thevermontgardener.blogspot.com) blog in the process, which was a nice discovery. Check it out, it has lots of great info.
So, for a summary of my findings:
Rubus Odoratus is a shrub that gives raspberries. The raspberries are edible, but they are seedier than the common raspberry and are best in jam. It is in the rose family, (the flowers resemble rosehip flowers, but smaller), but it has no thorns, just a velvety fuzz. It's leaves look like grape or maple leaves. It fruits in October or late September. (Our's arent quite ripe yet, but almost). It is native to Eastern North America. Ours is about 4 feet tall, but it can grow to 6 feet. It is a very hardy plant and we have a few on our farm now! The western version is the thimbleberry, with white flowers.

Wow, that's a lot of writing! I hope you enjoyed! More next weekend.
P.S. Vega and Alula are getting much friendlier, they will walk up to you to see if you have food, and don't mind being held as much. We trimmed their hooves today for the first time, and there were no problems!   

They are getting bigger by the day!