From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
A red, golden or black berry from the plant, Rubus, belonging to the rose family, thought to have come from Asia Minor. Roman records date the raspberry back to the 4th century AD. The Crusaders found them on their way to Jerusalem and wrote odes to their beauty and perfume. The English are responsible for the raspberry's cultivation throughout the Middle Ages, exporting it to the U.S. in the late 18th century. The black raspberry is indigenous only to eastern North America, its development taking second place to that of the more popular red variety.
