Raspberries --- Eat Something Black Everyday

I have been reading a lately about the benefits of black, purple, blue and dark red fruits and vegetables, especially berries, and the implications for health and well being. It makes sense --- our ancesters and the native Canadians maintained excellent health picking and eating wild and domestic berries and preserving them as well. So here's little motto I have adopted --- eat something black every day. For my purposes, I am including coffee as a black food.

But there are many other black options --- beets, blueberries, cranberries, eggplants, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, plums, prunes, cherries, red and black grapes, raisins, red cabbage, purple kale, purple potatoes, black beans, red beans, red wine and chocolate.

You have to eat the skins and seeds such as raspberry seeds, to get most of the benefits, so that rules out juice. Apparently dried fruits and frozen fruits are okay and red wine retains some benefits of the grape skins but I have not found any details about that. Instinctively, I know that I should eat as much freshly picked raw food as possible. When possible, I head out to Westham Island Herb Farm and buy berries picked the same day. So don't just buy the fruit and stick it in the frig --- get out a bowl and starting eating and then eat some at every meal.

Be careful eating chocolate --- it comes with sugar. If you are tired all the time, get all the chocolate and other sugar out of your diet and eat lots fruit and green salads (and I don't mean caesar salad).

I have written about the wonderful tastes of beets, red cabbage, and cranberries on this blog, so check the Labels (blog speak for index) for recipes.

Raspberries are in full season now, and they are so delicate that they have to be picked and eaten. My house rule is that the first one out in the garden in the morning gets to eat all the berries for breakfast. I don't see much point in picking them and putting in the frig. Usually that means me --- I keep rooster hours. There are also just enough strawberries still bearing and the blueberries are starting too. House guests and students are offered first dibs but they have to get out early.

Heaven is a mug of strong black cofffee, freshly ground overroasted beans of course, and warm berries plucked and eaten on the spot. I check out the peas and eat those too, pod and all if they are not too fat yet.

If you have a sunny spot about 3 feet in diameter in your garden, plant a summer-bearing variety. You don't need any special conditions other than sun. Mine are some kind of heritage plant, I wish I knew what because they are absolutely delicious --- huge, sweet, juicy flavourful, and prolific. You can read pages and pages about growing them, but as usual I do the least you can. You will need to prune the canes at the right time and you will need to stake them. You will also need to watch for suckers and pull them out.

There are two types of canes on the plant --- ones with flowers and fruit and ones without. In late summer or fall, remove the ones that had flowers and fruit, i.e. cut them off at the ground. Don’t top the ones without flowers during the summer --- they will have fruit the next year. In January to March, remove damaged canes leaving all the healthy canes. Prune the whole thicket to fit the space allotted and shorten the canes to 6 feet. I use stakes from Lee Valley but any wooden or bamboo sticks that you can jam into the ground will do. You need string or ties to tie the canes to the stakes. You will need gardening gloves and secateurs for pruning (friendly neighbourhood Home Hardware).