What Actually Are Berries?!
The History Of Berries
Berries are a tasty and nutritional food source that are loved worldwide and are perfect for many diets. The word berry comes from the Old English word berie, which originally meant grape. Many berries are edible and some of our favourite fruits, they’re often eaten worldwide in jams, preserves, fruit compotes, desserts, salads and more. When sugar became a popular preservative, berry preserves, were used as a way of making berries last through the winter. Traditionally, foraging wild berries was just a means of gathering food, but berry-picking at fruit farms has now become a fun seasonal activity in Europe and North America.
How To Determine The Quality Of Berries
The darker the berry the sweeter the juice! The best berries are those with a deep, vibrant colour and tight-skin. They should be firm and you’ll notice they will smell distinctly like the fruit, which indicates they’re sweet, juicy and rich in flavour. Shrivelled berries are likely to go ‘off’ within a couple of days and dark spots on strawberries and raspberries usually mean they are bruised or over-ripe and will also only last a day or two.
As berries are fragile, one bruised fruit can go bad and spoil the rest, so it’s best to separate any bruised fruits from the bunch. You can usually tell if there are any damaged fruits in the punnet, as there may be stains from the juice of the container. If they are just bruised and haven’t gone mouldy, don’t waste them as they can still be used in jams, compotes, smoothies and much more.
How Should Berries Be Stored?
How To Prepare Berries
Many believe you shouldn’t wash berries until you’re ready to eat them, but as many berries have pores and crevices, they can carry mould spores. Leaving them will only make the fruit go bad quicker and it’s easy for the mould to spread amongst the batch. One way to rid your berries of bacteria is a vinegar and water bath. Soaking the fruits in a diluted solution of 2 tablespoons of white vinegar mixed with around 750ml of water will kill the bacteria. Afterwards rinse thoroughly using colander so there’s no lingering taste of vinegar and pat dry with a paper towel, but be sure not to run the faucet directly onto the fruit as intense water pressure will easily squish soft fruits.
Nutritional Benefits Of Berries
Berries have many nutritional benefits such as being loaded with antioxidants and being a good source of vitamin C and folate. Folate and vitamins C both support the immune system and help reduce tiredness and fatigue. Whilst vitamin C also contributes to supporting your energy-yielding metabolism and helps protect cells from oxidative stress. The antioxidant properties of berries have been shown to protect against the most common diseases related to oxidative stress, such as cardiovascular disease, inflammation, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. These heart-healthy fruits can be enjoyed on nearly all types of diets so it’s a win, win for everyone.
Seasonality Of Berries
From spring through to summer is peak season for berries in the UK, so usually May to September, however blackberries can grow in October and cranberries grow best in November and December.
How Do Berries Grow?
Summer berries such as strawberries and raspberries need optimal sunlight, whereas blackberries and winterberries like cranberries for example need significantly less as they can grow in autumn and winter. Nutritious soil is always essential and fertiliser is also a great aid in the growth of these fruit bearing plants. Most of the more popular berries grow on bushes such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries and don’t need much space for individual plants to grow. However, a few types of berry, albeit the lesser known ones, do grow on trees for example mulberries, juniper berries and acai berries. Those deemed more popular are usually types of berries that are widely domesticated, whereas, lesser known types are more wild berries.
Where Are Our Berries From?
During UK berry season, our berries are grown and supplied by Angus Soft Fruits in Arbroath, Scotland and Evesham in England. Throughout the year, when out of season in the UK we source through our UK partners, berries grown oversees.
You can find out more about the suppliers we work with here.
Types Of Berries
Strawberry
Blueberry
Raspberry
Blackberry
Gooseberry
Cranberry
Our Berries
We stock all sorts of berries for all uses! Here you can find some of the varieties of berries we stock, when available. Please contact our team to discuss your requirements, or login to our online ordering or app to place your order for berries..
Recipes With Berries
Here’s some delicious recipe inspiration for your menus featuring juicy berries!
Spiced Roast Duck With Hay Baked Celeriac, Pickled Blackberries, Port Sauce & Duck Liver Toastie
Strawberry Arctic Roll Topped With Basil & Lime Marinated Strawberries
Roasted pheasant breast, confit leg, creamed sprouts and chestnuts, pheasant and port jus with blackberries
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