🍓🫐All Berry Good!🫐🍓
Berries are small pulpy fruits produced by plants in order to encourage animals to eat them and so spread the little pips or seeds contained within. They can be sweet, sour or tart and are usually brightly coloured when ripe.
They have been a big part of the human diet right from when we were hunter-gatherers. They are also useful as fabric dyes, as those of us who have spilt berry juice on our clothing know all too well!!
The true botanical definition of a berry is a fruit produced from the ovary of a single flower in which the outer layer of the ovary develops into an edible fleshy portion. This includes ones we all know as berries, such as blueberries, black currants, red currants, cranberries, gooseberries, etc but excludes those commonly known as berries, such as raspberries, strawberries and blackberries, which are aggregate fruits, and mulberries, which are multiple fruits. And in this botanical definition, berries also include grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, bananas, eggplants and chili peppers.
And while all berries are edible, some are poisonous to humans such as deadly nightshade, and others are poisonous when unripe, but perfectly safe when ripe, such as elderberries, and red and white mulberries.
Most berries are grown commercially, or can be easily grown at home if you can keep the birds away, although the varieties grown differ widely from the original wild ones, but some are still mainly picked from the wild, such as lingonberries and the divine cloudberries!!
But whatever your choice of berry, they are all packed with loads of great nutrition and taste great. A much better way to get essential vitamins than any pill!!
They can be eaten on their own - make a great snack and satisfy a craving for something sweet - or made into pies, or cakes, juiced, made into smoothies, or preserved as sauces, jams, jellies or dried fruit. For a tasty and nutritious breakfast, they are great as a topping on pancakes, or with cereal, porridge, granola or simply with yogurt!!
So do you eat a lot of berries, and if so, how do you like to enjoy them?
Which are your favourites?
And do you grow or preserve your own, or just enjoy a nice pie or muffin occasionally?
Let’s spend today discussing all the berry good things about this lovely natural food, as well as our usual friendly fun and chat!!
