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Click Here for Berry Recipes
I remember the long, lazy, hot summer days. Walking along the garden path I could feel the warmth of the earth beneath my feet, hear the bees buzzing among the flowers, and see butterflies flitting in and out. At the end of long rows of tomatoes, corn, and beans there was a berry patch. Here grew blueberry and gooseberry bushes, raspberries and blackberries briars growing higher than the fence posts, strawberries growing on the ground. There was also a grape arbor, like a small stage where vines and leaves formed a sort of curtain. I used to like to play on the stage pretending the rows of garden vegetables were my audience. There, I'd say the rhymes and sing songs…another story. From mid-May until late September, I could find a berry of two, ready for the picking. I remembered their tart-sweet taste, from one summer to the next, and could hardly wait until their pale green color would start to turn, first to pale pink and then take on their ripened jewel-like colors of ruby red, sapphire blue, and onyx black. I'd walk down to the berry patch almost every day in the summer and pick a few berries to snack on while I took a look around. If there were lots of berries, I would go back to the house and get my berry-picking basket-a rather small basket, shaped like an open purse that hung from my arm while I picked. If I could fill that basket with ripe berries, it would mean a wonderful berry dessert for dinner. If there were more ripe berries than my basket would hold, there were probably enough berries to make jam or for canning to eat in the winter. My grandmother taught me to wait until the berries were ripe for the picking, telling me that berries do not ripen after they are picked, as do some fruits like apples, bananas, peaches, and pears. When blackberries are ripe they are shiny and black, each little beaded cluster looks as if it will burst and the cap is golden brown; when the cap is green the berry is not fully ripe. Blueberries are sweet when they are fat and dark blue covered in a white haze. And, raspberries are ripe when they turn ruby red and tumble from their caps into your hand as you touch them. Of course, I had to experiment for myself and soon learned that unripened berries are quite sour. So I would wait impatiently for the right signs for picking to catch berries at their peak of flavor. The berries didn't ripen all at the same time; pickings were slow in the beginning - a few today, a few more the next day, and then maybe a basket full. But at the peak of their season we could pick buckets full. There would be all sorts of berries for breakfast, lunch, snacks, dessert, with enough fruit left over to can in glass jars, and to make jam. To make jam we placed equal weight of berries and sugar into a large pot and simmered them together slowly until the berries cooked down and the mixture thickened like syrup. This syrup, thick with berries was poured into hot jars and sealed. It tasted wonderful on toast, hot buttered bread, or peanut butter sandwiches…and it was like my own private secret to know that the jam came from my berry patch. When there were lots of berries to pick, my mother and grandmother came to help. I would fill my small basket over and over again while we all dumped our pickings into large buckets. These berries were cooled in our ice house unwashed because berries should be washed only when they are ready to be used. Washing berries in advance causes the skins to break down, diminishing the flavor and texture. Washed berries would then be used in a number of ways. Today the unused berries would be destined for the freezer, spread in a single layer on cookie sheets. Frozen berries would vacuum packed and placed back into the freezer. When it's time to use the berries, they can be poured out in any amount and used frozen in recipes that contain batter like pancakes cobbler, buckle, grunt, or slump. And thawed to make into pies, crisps, crumbles, or fools. I also like to add them to lemonade to make it pink or blue and ice cold. Now, if you're wondering, cobbler, crisp, buckle, crumble, fool, grunt, and slump are not the names of Seven Dwarfs but the names given to cooked berry dessert, all slightly different and yet deliciously similar. These desserts are fun to make and share with family and friends. But I love the taste of fresh berries so much; I eat them raw, popping them into my mouth while I'm picking. Warm off the vine, the tangy sweet juice squirts into my mouth and the telltale signs of juice stains my lips and tongue. My next favorite is berry shortcake made with raw berries and Chantilly cream (whipped cream sweetened with confectioners sugar and vanilla) piled high on a piece of cake. If you don't have a garden or your own berry patch, there are lots of local places to find vine-ripened berries just bursting with flavor. Buying fruits that are grown locally, helps local farmers and when you eat vine ripened, freshly harvested fruits and vegetables they have the greatest flavor and guess what-they contain more nutrients. There are several local orchards and berry farms that invite you to come and pick your own fruits or select from fruits already harvested. You may also find locally grown fruits at farmers' markets. Visiting orchards and berry farms is great fun. Here are a few things to remember when planning to go on a picking excursion: take along some sunscreen, insect repellant, and something cool to drink; wear a hat and carry a small pail or basket to hold the fruit while picking. Remember the tip my grandmother taught me about picking only ripe berries. Berry picking is the perfect opportunity for a picnic too. Below, I have listed two of my favorite picking spots; you may find more listings that include phone numbers and directions at http://www.vdacs.state.va.us/virginiagrown. Be sure to call for availability. Carters Mountain
Orchard, Charlottesville. Opens July 4 with peaches and nectarines. 977-1833 Berry Coulis Fruit Cobbler Crisp Berry Buckle Berry Crumble Berry Fool Berry Grunt Berry Slump Rowena T. Morrel
is publisher of In The Kitchen Magazine. |
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Never at a Loss with Berries [click here for recipes featuring berries, from our July 2010 issue] On the farm, we had all kinds of berries, which began to arrive in late May or early June - strawberries, wild briar berries, blackberries and finally raspberries, in July. Blueberry bushes were loaded from late June through August. We counted on these berries for our winter store of canned fruit and preserves and there was always some anxiety that the wildlife would harvest when we weren’t looking. Read my essay, about childhood berry picking, first published in Albemarle Kids magazine and now featured on this website.I’ve just returned from a local farmers market, teaming with berries and cherries of all descriptions. Ron picked and pitted about three gallons of sour cherries earlier in the week, so it is definitely time to get out some berry recipes. In addition to their raspberries, Planet Earth Diversified had a Raspberry Popsicle for sale, their newest product. Farmers need to develop value added products to extend the life of items with short growing seasons. Michael Clark and his partner Leslie Jenkins are quite talented in this regard. Elsewhere at the market there were growers selling their homemade jams, made presumably from local fruits—some with labels stating they were not for resale. In those cases, the jams were made in kitchens, not inspected by the health department. I wondered if those jam-makers realize that they are only able to sell their jams, jellies, and baked goods from uninspected kitchens because volunteer members of Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (VICFA) fought and won that right in the 2008 General Assembly? Berries are highly perishable. Choose berries that are firm and free of mold. They should not be exposed to sunlight or kept at room temperature. When refrigerated, unwashed, and loosely packed they should keep two to four days. Small berries are best frozen whole, spread on a cookie sheet; frozen; then transferred into vacuum seal bags. Even though they are highly perishable, berries are one of the biggest nutritional bargains - low in fats, carbs and calories; high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. We preserved five gallon buckets of berries on the farm, but when you have only a pint basket to preserve, you can do that too. (See recipe below, In a Jam). For larger quantities and various fruits, consult the Ball Blue Book, the definitive guide to home canning and freezing. For gourmet combination recipes found in many popular preserving books, carefully follow the instructions and do not rely on gimmicks like microwave canning for long-term preservation. We preserved berries on the farm the old-fashioned way, described in Edna Lewis’ The Taste of Country Cooking, using only the freshest fruit and sugar. This article was included in the July 2010 issue of In The Kitchen Magazine.
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