Berry Good Ideas

When a foodie friend told me she rarely eats strawberries beyond the first few weeks of their glorious reappearance in the spring at the Farmer’s market, I was surprised. In our area, our local farms bring strawberries (not hothouse) to the farmer's market through November, and strawberries and berries in general are a frequent food in our house. I daresay berries are my favorite food. I try to avoid imported and off-season berries, as well as any (usually heavily pesticided) non-organic berries.  Conventionally grown berries consistently show up on the EWG Dirty Dozen list of contaminated produce.   We keep the berries going much of the year in many ways, from freezing the annual Ollalieberry UPick bounty from July, to the feral Himalayan blackberries in the garden, to the sweet autumn raspberries that are even still edging over our fence from the neighbor’s yard, and then resort to dried and preserved berries to take us through the winter.

Berries are delicious. And they are super-nutritious. They give great pleasure, and flavor, and tend not to spike blood sugar as much as other sweet foods. The many types of berries typically contain beneficial phytochemical s such as polyphenols (especially anthocyanins), cancer-fighting ellagic acid, vitamins such as A and C, micronutrients and fiber, and recent studies have linked berry consumption to protection from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and vision loss.

Poking through the largest database on antioxidant content in foods, I was reminded that berries generally are higher in antioxidants than most foods, trailing behind only traditional medicines and culinary herbs and spices as a group. That 2010 study is worthy reading for any nutrition geek, yielding such delightful information, as that espresso contains several times the antioxidant content of green tea! A big reason for the phytochemical  punch of berries is that they have a high skin to fruit ratio, being small, and the skin is where plants tend to concentrate their antioxidants, in part to protect their precious seeds from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation from the sun.

Traditional Asian medicines suggest that dark-colored foods such as berries are nourishing to the kidney energy, which governs the process of aging. Many of the most powerful tonic foods and herbs are dark in color and very high in antioxidants. The potent anti-oxidant anthocyanins are the pigments which give these vivid purple, blue, black and red colors to foods. 

As the warm weather berries fade from the market, they are replaced by our fall favorite, the cranberry (for which I make an exception to the eat local rule), and an honorary berry, the pomegranite.  Cranberries are super high in antioxidant power, vitamin C, help prevent and treat UTI's, and have even been shown to help prevent the grwoth of foodborne pathogens.  Follow this link for much more detail on the health benefits of cranberries.  Does cranberry sauce count? Well, sure, but how about working the real thing into your life?  I've been enjoying cranberries in all my salads lately, and finding them pleasantlly tart and not needing sweetener.

Pomegranites receive honorary berry status because their nutritional profile is so similar, and they too have been linked to cardiovascular and cancer prevention.  Plus they can function as food and entertainment as your work to liberate the gleaming seeds from their astringent pith (the source of their traditional use in combatting diarrhea).  Don't forget that grapes a just big berries, too, and while higher in sugar than most of their cousins, their health benefits and that of moderate wine consumption are considerable.  I was excited to learn that Malbec and Pinot Noir usually have the highest antioxidant concentration of wines.  And that the health benefits of wine vary widely depending on varietal, region and technique?  This article tells all. 

There are many fun ways to get more berries into your diet.  Dried berries, (a favorite are those kidney-nourishing wonders, goji berries, another locavore exception) can go into trail mix, granola and tea, while frozen berries improve breakast porridge, waffles, muffins etc. and help carry us through the winter months.  I infuse the my feral blackberries into apple cider vinegar for extra berry power, and make lactofermented berry sodas and drinks.  Berry foraging is possible anytime you are out in nature, once you learn to identify the wild berries of your region. The highlight of a recent trip to Sequoia National Park was the treat of a handful of my all time favorite, thimbleberries (tasting like a super-concentrated raspberry) I found while sunning after skinny dipping in an icy stream. Even berry preserves offer health benefits, as the polyphenols in berries are not destroyed by cooking. 

RECIPE:  The photo is of my most exciting recent berry experience, celebrating what might be the last local strawberries of 2010.  I simmered 1/2 cup organic balsamic vinegar with 1/2 cup of freshly pressed pomegranite juice from the farmer's market for about 25 minutes until it was reduced to 1/3 cup of intense, luscious goodness.  I'll venture to say it was a good a dip for strawberries as melted chocolate, which is about as good as it gets.  It worked well as a drizzle for roasted sweet potatoes, and, I imagine, could enliven many other things...