SUMMER IS THE SEASON OF THE BERRY!

Summer Berries

Delicious, colourful berries are in season. Here's what to do with them. Temporarily stained fingers and tongues are a cheap price to pay for the oodles of health benefits and bold, sweet flavours of berries — available all summer long. When colourful punnets of these warm-weather staples start appearing in abundance on market shelves, grab them, as there's very little you can't do with this versatile fruit.

Health Benefits

If you add one food to your diet this year, make it berries. They taste great and are very nutritious. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are rich in antioxidants, which may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.

Selecting and Storing
When choosing berries, be sure to examine the punnet carefully for any signs of mould. Once mould has started it can spread quickly from berry to berry. Shop at supermarkets, or fruit markets with a high turnover, or at farmer's markets where the food has travelled the shortest distance, to ensure the freshest fruit. Because berries are fragile, keep them in their original containers or arrange them in a shallow pan (to reduce pressure from stacking), cover them with a paper towel and put them in the fridge. Don't wash them until just before you're ready to use them.
Blueberries freeze especially well. Arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until hardened, then transfer them to a resealable bag. Incidentally, frozen berries taste great and retain much of their nutritional value. In a pinch, you can substitute them for fresh in baking and smoothies. In fact you'll find that frozen berries are actually better to bake with than fresh berries. The juice from fresh berries has a tendency to bleed into cake and pancake mixture.


Cooking with Berries
Keep a punnet or two on hand in the fridge all week. Their price goes down significantly when they're in season and given their health benefits, you'll want to enjoy them in these ways and others:

• Toss a handful of berries into your morning cereal to pump up its nutritional value.
  
  
• Start off the day with a fresh berry smoothie: Blend a mix of whatever berries you have on hand with half a banana some low fat plain yogurt and skimmed milk. Sweeten it with a bit of honey if necessary.
  
  
• Fold a handful of berries into your low fat or fat free yogurt.
  
  
• For a berry sauce to drizzle over pancakes, or fresh or frozen yogurt, puree 150g berries with 50g sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice until smooth. Fold in another 150g whole berries with a spoon.
  
  
• Top a bed of greens with a few berries and a tangy vinaigrette.
  
  
• Marinate (yes, actually marinate) strawberries with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and 1 tbs of icing sugar, for a very Italian take on dessert.
•  http://www.weightwatchers.co.uk/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=30271