A sweet fleshy soft fruit with over 600 varieties worldwide and counting. The fruit is widely appreciated for its characteristic aroma, bright red colour, juicy texture, and sweet tartness. Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen each spring and are the only fruits to wear their seeds on the outside. Only rinse strawberries when you’re ready to eat them!
The flesh of the blueberries is semi-transparent and encases tiny seeds. Blueberries cultivated are mildly sweet, whereas those which grow in the wild are more tart and tangy in flavour. The powder coating on blueberries is
called bloom. It is a natural protection against the sun and is a sign of freshness.
Raspberries can range in colour from the popular red variety to black, purple, yellow or golden. Each colour berry has a unique composition of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. There are over 200 different known varieties but only two varieties are grown commercially. Unlike many fruits, raspberries do not continue to ripen after they have been picked.
A large sweet black or very dark purple edible aggregate fruit of any of various bushes of the genus Rubus. There are around 375 species of blackberry, which are found in almost all parts of the world. The dark blue colour ensures blackberries have one of the highest antioxidant levels of all fruits. Similar to raspberries, they cease to ripen once they are picked.
A small yellowish orange fruit encased in a leafy papery husk, similar in size and shape to a cherry tomato. The flavour is a unique and pleasant, tomato-pineapple like blend. Sweeter than cherry tomatoes, physalis can be eaten raw, used in salads, desserts, as a flavouring and in preserves. Its juicy pulp contains many small edible seeds and stores well when kept in its original husk.
The smooth-skinned, globe-shaped fruit, which usually ripens to bright red is a juicy tart berry. Although generally prepared with sugar added, as they can be quite sour, redcurrants are sometimes eaten fresh or in fruit salads. More typically, they are prepared into jams, jellies, syrups, and sorbets and are used in a wide variety of baked goods and desserts.
The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of its plant. Initially light green, cranberries turn a bright red when ripe. It is edible, but with an acidic taste that usually overwhelms its sweetness. As fresh cranberries are hard, sour, and bitter, about 95% of cranberries are processed and used to make cranberry juice, sauce, compote or jelly. The development of cultivated varieties occurred only during the past 100 years, making cranberries one of the most recently domesticated fruit crops.
Grapes are a kind of berry. They have a leathery covering and a fleshy inside, similar to blueberries. There are more than 8,000 grape varieties from about 60 species worldwide. The main types are American and European. Grapes come in many colours, including green, black, red, yellow, pink, and purple. “White” grapes are actually green. Grapes are 80% water, which make a juicy refreshing snack that is low in calories. Dried grapes are known as raisins.
Kyoho grapes are very large in size and round to oval in shape. The berries have almost jet-black skin that is thick and glossy with a natural bloom that protects the grapes from fermenting and moisture loss. Kyoho grapes are a slip-skin variety and contain large fully developed seeds. The incredibly juicy, translucent green flesh that is almost gelatinous in texture is extremely sweet and refreshing.
Delaware grapes are small to medium in size and oval to round in shape, growing in small, tightly packed clusters. The smooth delicate skin ripens from green to pale red and are of a slip-skin variety. The translucent green flesh is juicy and may contain some seeds. Delaware grapes are aromatic and have a sweet, mild, and slightly fruity flavour that is somewhat similar to sweet jelly.
Champagne grapes are typically the size of a pea or smaller. They are seedless table grapes and their miniature stems are edible. Contrary to their name, they are not used to produce champagne or sparkling wine. Champagne grapes are crisp, succulent, and have a sweet taste with a hint of tartness.
