Make the most of any meal or snack by piling on the berries. Few tastes are more pleasing than the rush of juice you get biting down on a fresh blueberry or that first enthralling nibble from a plump strawberry. Get started with our sweet and savory serving suggestions.
Tantalizing jewel-like berries are a treat for the senses. Bursting with flavor and naturally wholesome, who can resist their vivid colors and fragrant aroma? Pick a favorite from among sweet strawberries, tangy raspberries or other fresh and invigorating favorites.
As versatile as they are delicious, berries take center stage whenever baked into a signature pie, added to a fresh green salad or used in a savory sauce. Some are linked with desserts we love, strawberry shortcake for instance. Others—think blueberries—make themselves essential by supporting good health and offering a juicy taste explosion each time you pop a few in your mouth.
BERRY BASICS
Gathered wild since prehistoric times, berries have been cultivated for millennia on bushes, vines, canes and trees. Rapid transportation makes fruit available to us year- round, though we still have to wait until spring or summer for domestic berries.
In botanical terms, true berries—such as blueberries, cranberries and goji berries (also called wolfberries)— are single fruits that grow from one flower. But some varieties are more accurately termed aggregate fruits because the berries form as clusters of smaller fruit, rather than forming as one big berry. The aggregate is easiest to see with raspberries and blackberries. Whether they’re actual berries or berries in name only, you can be sure that any of these succulent, small fruits will be bursting with health benefits and flavors that will leave you wanting another.
A BEVY OF BERRIES
Four warm-weather berries—strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries—are top perennial choices. All are grown by Hy-Vee’s primary berry supplier, Driscoll’s, a family-owned farming operation in business for more than 100 years. The grower raises crops on the U.S. East and West coasts, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.