All about Berries!

This time of year the great berry breakfast shift happens in our household. Winter breakfasts often consist of raspberry jam or black and blueberry jam on toast, but as berries begin ripening in the yard I start to make a weekly batch of granola. Mornings begin by tiptoeing through wet grass to lift green strawberry leaves searching out the ruby colored fruits, or inspecting raspberry vines while trying to avoid the thorns. Fresh picked berries top the granola with a dollop of yogurt for a welcome change from winter time jam-toast.

If you are lucky enough to have berries in your yard I highly recommend this morning ritual, but even if you don’t, you can still enjoy fresh picked berries this time of year. Amber Weaver Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Asheville is working with Kiera Bulan Coordinator of Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council to map all the edibles on city property (rolling out later this summer). Many of those edibles are in the form of Service Berries otherwise known as June Berries, and if they are on public land everyone is welcome to pick.

If you would like to read on about berries and get my recipe for Strawberry Ice Cream... see the rest of this article as it appears in the Mountain Xpress