July belongs to Berries Month

What is this Holiday for?

This Holiday is set aside for people to appreciate berries for their good taste and for good health as well. During this month make it a point to add more berries in your diet and familiarize yourself with all the different ways berries can be used in cooking. Make this month fun by planning some of your favorite berries and enjoy eating them off the vine or bush.

Berry Cuisine

For National Berry Month, search out some great dessert recipes that's packed full of berries and enjoy a nice hot or cool berry treat. Berry drinks are popular too, let's not forget about them. You can find some great drink recipes over the Internet along with some great shakes and smoothie recipes jam and jelly recipes too. All of which include the healthy berry.

Berries and good health

Did you know that berries are bursting with vitamins and minerals, many of which are classified as antioxidants?  In fact, blueberries and strawberries are at the top the list of antioxidant-rich foods.

In botanical language, a berry is a simple fruit having seeds and pulp produced from a single ovary; the ovary can be inferior or superior.

Examples of botanical berries include: Banana; Barberry; Bearberry; Cranberry; Crowberry; Currant - red, black, and white types; Elderberry; Gooseberry; Indian gooseberry; Grape; Honeysuckle: the berries of some species are edible and are called honeyberries, but others are poisonous; Cowberry/Lingonberry; Mayapple; Nannyberry or sheepberry; Oregon-grape; Pumpkin; Strawberry tree; and Watermelon.

Modified berries

The fruit of citrus, such as the orange, kumquat and lemon, is a berry with a thick rind and a very juicy interior that is given the special name presidium.

Not a botanical berry

Many fruits commonly referred to as berries are not actual berries by the scientific definition, but fall into one of these categories:

Drupes

Drupes are fleshy fruits produced from a (usually) single-seeded ovary with a hard stony layer surrounding the seed; Plum; Peach; Hackberry; and Bayberry.  Other drupe-like fruits with a single seed, that lack the stony endocarp include: Avocado.

Pomes

The pome fruits produced by plants such as apples and pears, have a structure (the core) that clearly separates the seeds from the ovary tissue. However, some of the smaller pomes are sometimes referred to as berries. Bright red haws from Crataegus are sometimes called hawberries. Amelanchier pomes become so soft at maturity that they resemble a blueberry and are known as Juneberries or Saskatoon berries.

So, what are you waiting for?  If you a lacking fresh berries at home, take a quick trip to your market and pick up a good variety of berries.  They are great at each meal and as snakes throughout the day.