CHOICE JULY 2015

Home and garden

Government health campaigns and new production methods have revolutionised the way soft fruit is consumed in the UK.

Graham Sherwood hails the humble berry

FOOD PRODUCTION anddistribution is now such globalcommerce that seasonal soft fruits

can be enjoyed virtually all year round.While most of us will profess to preferringthe finest, sweetest British varieties whenavailable, there are few who haven’t beentempted to enjoy a strawberry atChristmas from who knows where.

Under modern farming techniquesstrawberries, raspberries, blueberries andblackberries are now the nation’s favouriteand most avidly consumed soft fruits. Mostrecent figures show that strawberries are easily

the most favoured at £464m a year, withraspberries and, surprisingly, blueberriestying for second spot at £146m each year andblackberries, always readily available in thehedgerow, on £23m annually.

Strawberries were cultivated by theRomans from as early as 200 BC and inmedieval times were regarded as anaphrodisiac; a soup made of strawberries,borage and soured cream was traditionallyserved to newlyweds at their weddingbreakfast. Dr William Butler originatedthe famous quotation: “Doubtless Godcould have made a better berry, but

doubtless God never did.”The traditional British

strawberry season canbegin any time from theend of April to mid-May,

and usually continues untilthe weather cools in

October, with the best-knownstrawberry varieties Elsanta

and Sonata having excellentflavour, quality and

– importantly forretailers – good

berry

shelf-life. Other delicious varieties includeSweet Eve, Driscoll's Jubilee, Ava andRed Glory. During the British winter,imported strawberries usually come fromSpain, Morocco, Egypt and Israel.

Raspberries are thought to haveoriginated in eastern Asia but it was notuntil the 17th century that the fruit becamewidely popular. By the 18th century,however, cookery writers were alreadydevising recipes using the fruit for raspberrywine and vinegar, sweets and jams.

Scotland has always been famous for itsraspberry growing and during the lateFifties the crop was taken from Scotlandto Covent Garden market on a steam trainknown as the ‘Raspberry Special’.

Grown commercially, for two mainmarkets – fresh and processed –

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raspberries were once predominantlyregarded as a late summer crop, but todaygrowers using different varieties andinnovative growing methods havemanaged to extend the season to providethis increasingly popular berry from Juneto October.

When out of season domestically,imported fruit comes from Spain,Morocco and USA.

Blueberries are found naturally all overthe world, but the culinary blueberries weeat today owe their origins to several NorthAmerican species. Wild blueberriesprovided an important food crop for theNative American tribes that the earliestEuropean colonials came across in theearly 1600s and it wasn’t long before the settlers began consuming blueberriesavidly themselves.

British blueberries are generallyavailable from June until September, thestart of the season usually beginning withthe Duke variety. To extend the seasoninto late September, and sometimes evenOctober, growers have planted somespecial USA varieties such as BluecropChandler, Darrow, Draper, Liberty,Ozark Blue and Aurora. These are allknown for their quality, sweetness andshelf life. In the British winter, Chile,Argentina, South Africa, and Spain are all

important blueberry producers thatsupply the UK market.

Blackberries are common throughoutthe world and have been known by manynames, including brambleberries,brumblekites and lawers. There isarchaeological evidence that blackberrieswere eaten in Britain in Neolithic times.Strangely, the fruit has always beensurrounded by superstition and mystery:for example, in the South West ofEngland it was believed that the firstblackberries spotted growing each yearcould banish warts.

There are two distinct types ofblackberry, the European and the NorthAmerican; the latter types tend to fruitearlier in the summer and thecombination of the two helps to give aconsistent supply of blackberries.Traditionally, the British blackberryseason begins in June, reaches its peak inAugust and may continue until the firstfrosts in November.

Modern varieties include Chester,Driscolls Carmel, Driscoll Cowles, LochNess, Loch Tay, Karaka Black andObsidian; these all have a higher sugarcontent and lower acid levels thantraditional wild-picked blackberries.

Of course, in the UK we have enjoyed along tradition of pick-your-own soft fruitfarming, but this does seem to be decliningsomewhat, often as a result of our unreliableweather forcing producers to turn their backson open farming in favour of the morereliable and profitable poly-tunnels.

For example, a hectare (two and aquarter acres) of poly-tunnel costs about£25,000 and should produce 25 to 30tonnes of strawberries in a season. Theprice a grower receives for a tonne ofstrawberries from the supermarkets isaround £3000. With picking, packing andtransport costs accounting for about halfof that figure, the resulting profitabilityspeaks for itself.

It isn’t all plain sailing, however, as therehas been much opposition to theincreasing acreage of poly-tunnels thatmany believe are a blot on the countryside.Farmers counter this by saying that the

tunnels are merely temporary structuresbut one local authority in the South hasalready insisted that all proposed poly-tunnels within its jurisdiction will infuture require planning permission.

The retail revolution concerning softfruit in the UK over the past 20 years hasindeed been remarkable. Driven largelyby the continual government-backedhealth awareness campaigns, there hasbeen a total reversal in the industry. Atone time 85 per cent of the raspberry cropwas made into jam, but nowadays about85 to 90 per cent of raspberries end upbeing sold as fresh.

The use of poly-tunnels has also had atremendous impact on the amount ofland used for strawberry and raspberrycultivation. In 1982, Scotland grew amassive 2593 hectares of raspberries and768 hectares of strawberries. Over the pastten years these areas have contracted to188ha and 141ha respectively.

While that may be depressing reading,Scotland's soft fruit production hasactually increased by £56m (152 per cent)to an estimated £93m in the same period.This increase in value is mostly down tobetter yields from poly-tunnels andstronger prices received for fruit sold freshto supermarkets as opposed to that whichgoes for processing.

Whatever your opinion might be, onething is a certainty: there will be plenty ofsucculent berries to tuck into thissummer. Enjoy….

“Under modern farming techniques strawberries, raspberries,blueberries and blackberries are now the nation’s favourite

and most avidly consumed soft fruits”

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