Berries Are Good For You
1st February 2007

Think of your five daily portions of fruit and apples, oranges, pears, and bananas come to mind. There are lots of other fruit available but we seem to ignore the small fruits. Perhaps it is easier to think of a single fruit as a portion rather than lots of small berries.

Daily we are told of fruit that is good for our bodies containing all sorts of things we have never heard of before but that will help prevent disease. This is where the small fruits often score. They are good for us and, unlike oranges, bananas and pineapples, we can grow them in the garden. If you haven’t a garden some of them are ideal for planting in pots.

Blueberries are supposed to have higher levels of antioxidants than any other fruit or vegetable. It is claimed that they help to prevent varicose veins. They are tasty, can be eaten straight from the garden and are easy to grow. Plant in an ericaceous compost in the fruit garden or they may be grown in pots. They form compact, evergreen bushes. ‘Ozarkblue’ is a good variety for flavour.

Blackcurrants are high in vitamin C and are a good crop for the fruit garden where a properly pruned bush will produce fruit for 12-15 years. When pruning cut the old branches as close to ground level as possible without leaving a stump.

Cranberries are becoming popular both as a fresh fruit and dried. They are easy to grow in Ireland where they will only succeed if the ground is boggy. They are plants for swamps so our climate suits. Planted in an ericaceous compost in a pot lined with polythene will produce good crops of berries.

The Sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides, is an ornamental shrub that tolerates seaside conditions. With its silvery, deciduous leaves and bright, orange-yellow winter berries it is a useful shrub for winter colour and as food for the birds.

From now on our little feathered friends may have to eat something else. Research has shown the humble sea buckthorn berries to be high in everything that is supposedly good for us. They are incredibly high in vitamin C plus 6-7 other vitamins as well as amino acids. They help in the fight against high blood pressure, heart disease and other health problems. The bad news is their taste. The berries are very acid and as a juice need to be mixed with other sweeter, natural juices. A male plant is needed for pollination. A heavy cropping female cultivar is ‘Juliet’.

I wonder how long before Hippophae juice is the new, cool, hip drink?