With the Chef® raspberries we can offer you two exceptional raspberry varieties, which are not yet available in this quality in the home garden sector. With these varieties, the Lubera® breeding team has finally succeeded in doing away with the old wives' tale that large raspberry fruits do not taste good. The ideally complementary raspberry varieties 'Summer Chef®' and 'Autumn Chef®' offer an extraordinary taste experience that is second to none.
The advantages of the Chef® raspberries
The breeding of new, large-fruited and productive varieties with an excellent raspberry aroma has taken many years to find varieties that can rival or even surpass 'Tulameen' in taste. So if you've forgotten what a raspberry should taste like, try our Chef® raspberries 'Autumn Chef®' as the perfect autumn raspberry and 'Summer Chef®' for summer enjoyment.
Here again the most important advantages of the Chef® raspberries:
- Excellent flavour of both varieties
- Late floricane raspberry 'Summer Chef®'
- Medium to late primocane raspberry 'Autumn Chef®'
- Both varieties have exceedingly large fruits
- Both cultivars have a normal growth habit, ≈ 200 cm tall
- Only slightly pronounced thorns on both cultivars, actually only “bumps” and no spines
- Robust varieties, only extremely low susceptibility to cane/root diseases
The perfect raspberry flavour
The perfect raspberry flavour is not easy to describe, but a high content of sugar in combination with a good fruit acid value is already part of it. This is because rather low levels of sugar and acidity, as well as high sugar levels without any appreciable acidity, result in an empty, flat taste.
Both Chef® raspberry varieties, on the other hand, have an ideal ratio between sweetness and fruit acid. In addition, both varieties also have a very good aroma. This is not perceived immediately; only after eating the fruit does this 'typical' raspberry aroma capture us through our noses and sense of smell.
The Chef® raspberry range from Lubera Edibles
As already mentioned, both varieties of Chef® raspberries complement each other very well and they are currently the best breedings that Lubera® has to offer in terms of taste. We would like to introduce these two aromatic wonders to you in more detail.
Summer Chef® – the aromatic floricane raspberry
Picture: floricane raspberry Summer Chef®
The Summer Chef® raspberry tastes like raspberries should taste. It has an excellent raspberry aroma, a robust growth habit with a good number of young canes and good cane health so that they can survive a cold winter. Summer Chef® also has an insignificant number of thorns, which are only noticeable as 'bumps' on the bark of the canes.
Picture: fruits of the floricane raspberry Summer Chef®
Short description – raspberry Summer Chef®
- Maturity: on the biennial canes, from the beginning of July
- Fruits: large and conical in shape, very high yield
- Flavour: very fruity with an intense raspberry aroma
- Growth: good young cane growth, usually not higher than 220 cm; good overwintering of the one-year-old canes (even in cold winters)
- Special features: only a small number of thorns, these only appear as bumps that are not pokey
Autumn Chef® – the aromatic primocane raspberry
Picture: primocane raspberry Autumn Chef®
The autumn raspberry Autumn Chef® is currently the best tasting, large-fruited autumn raspberry from the Lubera® breeding programme. The fruits are very large (up to 5 g); they have a shiny bright red colour as well as a conical shape. Autumn Chef® is a medium to late maturing variety compared to other strong growing autumn raspberries (> 170 cm). The ripening period starts in early/mid-August and continues well into the autumn months. The special thing about Autumn Chef®, however, is that this variety also produces a very good yield on the two-year-old canes. Here the harvest is again very early, in June.
Picture the big fruits of the primocane raspberry Autumn Chef®
Short description – raspberry Autumn Chef®
- Maturity: one-year-old canes: from about 10 August to the end of September; on two-year-old canes: in June, from about 10- 15 June
- Fruits: very large (up to 5 g); shiny, bright red and quite firm; round-conical in shape, with medium-sized individual fruits (druplets); detach very well from the cone in the summer and also in autumn
- Shelf life: Autumn Chef® can be kept fresh in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, especially if picked in relatively bright light
- Growth: healthy, medium vigorous growth; the canes bend under the weight of the autumn harvest; classic raspberry framework is essential; few thorns, especially at the base of the shoots
- Pruning: remove all of the shoots at ground level in February/March; if a June harvest is desired, leave 3-4 last year's shoots per plant – if possible the medium-strong and latest growing shoots
Autumn Chef® & Summer Chef® – harvest raspberries for four months
You are surely wondering how it should be possible to harvest raspberries for four months with only two varieties, a summer raspberry and an autumn raspberry. Indeed, the floricane raspberry Summer Chef® ripens quite late, in July and sometimes even into August, and then the primocane raspberry Autumn Chef® follows seamlessly afterwards. This raspberry variety ripens from the beginning/middle of August until the end of September. If you pay attention and count, you will come to three months, so there is still an entire month missing. But how do we get to the four months? That can be answered very easily. The primocane raspberry Autumn Chef® has an excellent Twotimer® ability, meangin that it forms a very good yield with an equally good fruit quality even on the two-year-old canes.
Our tests have shown that systematic simultaneous fruiting of the one-year and two-year canes in the garden is not recommended because the plants suffer too much from this double load. In principle, we recommend cutting back the Autumn Chef® raspberry to ground level in the spring. However, you can make an exception here and leave 1-2 canes on a different plant each year, which will then provide the yield in June.
