You don’t have to look far to find someone talking about how healthy fresh fruits and berries are for us.
Casually pass the checkouts of your supermarket and the health and fitness magazine covers are raving about these “Super Foods.”
Flicking around the TV or while you are surfing the internet we get the same messages; fresh fruits and berries are packed with not just juicy flavour but with vitamins, minerals and powerful antioxidants that help us be more healthy, fight disease and lose weight.
But come on...we knew this. Mom was always telling us if we were hungry grab and apple. She must be giggling now to see these same “super foods” dressed up in their super hero capes!
What I think is really cool, is not just how good fruit is for us but also how many of the very best “super fruits” we can grow ourselves in our own yards even in a pot on a patio. There are many benefits to growing your own food. Organic never felt as good as when you grow it yourself and there is no fresher than just picked. Can’t get your kids to eat them? Fruits and berries are much more fun to eat when you harvest and pick them yourself. Beyond the nutritious benefits, working in your garden, is good exercise, great alone time, couple time and family time.
Most kids love to “be allowed” to eat blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and apples from the garden. Healthy habits start young and this is a great family activity. While I was helping a customer this past spring, one of her cute little twins, exclaimed that we were selling “pop tomatoes” at the garden centre! Pop tomato is apparently their family nickname for cherry tomatoes because they “pop”, and the juice all comes out, when you eat them. The little girl was so excited and then thrilled when her Mom said they could buy a plant each to grow.
I remember my Mom saying, you have to let them help you before it is actually a help to you if you want them to enjoy doing it. Well, that just makes sense. Is it about them doing it for the fun of it or is it just all about helping you with your work?
Growing food doesn’t need to be complicated, in fact if you are new to gardening start small. A couple blueberry plants just for picking and a tomato plant are a pretty good place to start.
Some of the best “super” fruits and berries for your garden:-
Apples
Black Raspberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Cranberries
Currants
Figs
Grapes
Honeyberries
Kiwi
Loganberries
Pears
Plums
Raspberries
Strawberries
Tayberries
Thornless blackberries
Whatever you decide to grow, make it something you can’t wait to eat.
Enjoy!