Berry-de-licious

Nothing sings Summer quite like the arrival of berry’s in every shape and size. When you see the extra’s table filled with red delicious berries, you know that Summer is just a heartbeat away. I love the sweet, delicious taste of all the Summer berries. They are scrumptious on their own and are so versatile in such a plethora of recipes; raw, cooked, frozen, stewed, baked... however you have your berries and whatever your favourite berry recipe is, I’m sure it’s something we all long for in the Summer months.

I’ve been longing for the berries of Summer to try some of the amazing raw food recipes I see that are filled with berries of every kind. However, even though I brought home TWO punnets of both strawberries AND boysenberries (yes, that equals FOUR punnets of berrys!) the other day - NONE made it into any recipe creations. All were eaten and enjoyed, fresh, just as is. All in about 48hours as well! We discovered a wonderful taste treat. I love how the flavour type of one food can enhance the flavour type of another food when eaten successively. Previously we have done this with californian dates and nuts - mostly walnuts and pecans. Eating the date first brings out the sweetness of the pecan or walnut, really changing the typical flavour we experience from these nuts. We discovered the other day, that to eat 3-4 boysenberries with their sharp, tart flavour and then to follow it with one of those juicy little strawberries - OH MY GOODNESS! The strawberry is SO sweet - it actually tasted like one of those strawberry and cream lollies! Beautiful!

Now for the strawberry tech info... The other day I was intrigued by a passing comment by someone I had just met at a gathering. This person is from Germany and has an Anthroposophical background. In our conversation, this person mentioned to me how traditional Anthroposophical folk will not eat strawberries as they are seen as a seductive fruit, with the seeds on the outside. This got me searching the internet for more information on this - I found it really interesting. I could definitely see how the fruit could have this kind of energy associated with it, as it definitely is a very alluring fruit which has long been associated with love and romance. Strawberries with Champagne and a wee piece of chocolate probably feature in the congratulations basket of most honeymoon suites around the world. The three most romantic associated food and drink items! Whilst I couldn’t find any information about this particular point of reference with Anthroposophy, I was interested with the information I did find about the facts of strawberries. Strawberries, by botanists are most often not even classified as a ‘berry’ because of the fact that they do not contain their seeds on the inside like other berries. However, what some folk view as the seeds on the outside of the berry, are in fact not actual seeds. Those little yellow dots on the outside are the actual fruit! There are over 200 of these on every strawberry. Inside each of these ‘fruits’ is a little seed. Wikipedia has a great microscope image of these fruits showing the seed inside. What we normally think of as the strawberry fruit is actually a swollen stem, like a rose hip. The MadSci network has some interesting information on this as well as some great strawberry facts and trivia on Pick Your Own.

Too much thought? That’s what I’m thinking... I just like to enjoy one of the best fruits of Summer - the strawberry, even if it’s not a fruit itself and even if it’s not a berry and AH.... too much thinking - I think I’ll just enjoy them without thinking about whether I’m eating a fruit or a berry or a seed or a stem......