Berry Interesting

This is the time of year that you can grab your pail or bucket and pick your own berries. Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries and Strawberries are all available at ‘u-pick-um’ farms throughout the U.S.

Flowers to Eat has a new arrangement called Oh! Raspberry which includes raspberries and blueberries, as well as strawberries, into its design. It is unique in this way with these fruits that are known for their healthy characteristics.

Raspberries are an excellent source of fiber, manganese and vitamin C. They are a good source of vitamin B2, folate, niacin, magnesium, potassium and copper. In addition, they contain significant amounts of the anti-cancer phytochemical ellagic acid.
Raspberries possess almost 50% higher antioxidant activity than strawberries, three times that of kiwis, and ten times the antioxidant activity of tomatoes, shows research conducted in the Netherlands and published in the journal BioFactors.

Blueberries are super nutritious too. There are only 80 delicious calories per cup and virtually no fat. A serving contains almost 25% of the recommended daily amount of Vitamin C. They are also a good source of Manganese, dietary fiber and antioxidents.

And they make a great parfait! See the June 11 recipe in our blog.

According to wisegeek.com, there are over 20 different types of unusual berries in North America alone. This does not include many fruits that have the name "berry" but actually do not belong to the same family, such as is the case of strawberries, blackberries raspberries, and boysenberries. These four fruits, which are sometimes considered part of the group of unusual berries, are actually aggregate fruits.

Let’s see how well you know these unusual berries. See if you can match the berry name with the interesting fact about it in the right column:

1. Seaberries
2. Mulberries
3. Tayberries
4. Bumbleberry
5. Wolfberry
6. Boysenberry

A. Mixture of berries combined in recipes
B. Used in traditional Chinese Medicine to improve eyesight and liver function
C. Soft, semi-sweet and fragile in nature; seldom found in grocery stores
D. Created as a cross between loganberries, blackberries, & raspberries that are characterized by a soft center with not seeds
E. Grow in cold weather and popular in tea in Russia
F. Hybrid berry created by cross-breeding a blackberry and a raspberry originating in Scotland

(Answers to the quiz are posted at the bottom of the Blueberry Parfait recipe in our previous blog entry)