Adios Strawberries & Welcome Raspberries

I greet you from one of my favourite times of the season. The end of strawberry season and the beginning of raspberries.

Sad yes, as this means one of summer's first harvests has passed us.

Luckily, there is a very brief and mouth watering period of time when both lush plants, strawberry & raspberry are ripe- at the same time.

My friend Janice and I found this berry pickers paradise, where steps apart through soft sandy soils you can pick both berries at once. Reminiscent of our gathering times, it is an experience so divine tastes buds will never forget and fingers will be stained for days from the sweet & sour juices bursting from local berries.

Contrast this experience to eating dry, hollow and overly large berries, picked too early and packed in plastic. Shipped from thousands of miles away. I could go on.

It is this experience that inspired my blog. I am on a search for real foods. Join me as I uncover the dramatic differences between local & foreign, whole & fragmented, fresh & packaged, ripe & preserved. It is my goal to seek out these foods from farms and their farmers. I will be sharing my adventures with you and how you can live & eat sustainably, as well as passionately.

Adventure: Organic strawberry & raspberry picking

Location: Maan Farms Abbottsford BC http://www.maanfarms.com/

Nutrition advice: Eat & freeze what you can this is a very limited season. Please buy organic berries. Why? Well for the obviously reasons that pesticides are poisonous for our bodies and soil health. But berries have a lot of surface area and seeds where toxins can hide and which can be hard to clean. Berries also uptake water/ liquid into their structure, like our bodies. It is best if this water/ liquid is clean.

Nutrition spectrum: Berries are cooling, moistening and have qualities to help generate body fluids. Berries are rich in silicon and vitamin C and are good spring cleansers. Allergic reactions to berries are often caused when they are not vine ripened.