By Dorothy Foltz-Gray

I once lived where blackberries grew wild along the fringes of our woods. For a few days in midsummer, if we could get to the bushes before the squirrels did, my young sons and I would have a berry feast. Very little fruit made it into the colanders we carried; mostly we stood grazing like forest animals ourselves. For us, berries seemed an incarnation of summer itself, their brightness bursting both sweet and tart against our teeth.

What we didn’t know, of course, was that we were doing our bodies a big favor, too. Tiny as they are, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries can pack a powerful punch against heart disease, cancer, and urinary tract infections. And to my fading brain’s delight, berries appear to help keep our neurons firing as we age.

Berries are virtual wellsprings of nutrients, each loaded with fiber, vitamins C and A, and minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium. What’s most interesting about them, though, is not the individual nutrients each type contains, but what those nutrients can do together. “It’s the combined effects of the compounds in a berry that do the work,” says Mary Ann Lila, a professor of plant sciences at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. “They act through different mechanisms simultaneously, and that’s what makes them so powerful.”

Scientists didn’t reach this con-clusion about the magic of the mix all at once. Initially they turned up evidence for the antioxidant powers of anthocyanins, the dark blue and red pigments that give berries their color. These nutrients play a key role in repairing cells harmed by unstable molecules called free radicals, damage that accumulates as we age and appears to contribute to cancer and heart disease. Of 40 fruits and vegetables recently tested for cancer-fighting antioxidants, researchers found that blueberries topped the list—and the other berries weren’t far behind.

What’s less well known is that berries have anti-inflammatory properties, too, a finding for which we can thank a group of elderly rats who dined regularly on blueberries. When James Joseph, director of the Neuroscience Laboratory, part of the USDA Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Boston’s Tufts University, measured the cytokines, or markers of inflammation, in the brain tissue of these rats, they matched the levels seen in young rats.

But even berries’ antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties don’t tell the whole story. When Joseph and psychologist Barbara Shuckitt-Hales placed blueberry-fed rats in a water maze, for instance, they found that the greater the number of different blueberry phytochemicals that reached the rats’ brains, the better their performance.

Joseph and his colleague David Morgan also looked at mice genetically bred to have brain damage similar to that in Alzheimer’s patients. The brains in mice who feasted on blueberries still developed disease-causing plaque, says Joseph, but the signals between the neurons involved in learning and memory improved, preventing some of the changes associated with Alzheimer’s. “What we’re seeing,” says Joseph, “is the combined effect of these different families of nutrients.”

For berry grazers like my family and me, such news offers more reason than ever to gobble a mix of berries whenever we can—in a salad brightened with dried raspberries, a frozen blueberry smoothie, or simply by the sweet summer handful. Most experts recommend eating a variety of berries at least two to three times a week, and daily, if possible—the more the better. That means this summer, along with our outdoor grazing, we’ll be freezing trays of fruit to keep us in berries throughout the winter. Because we can’t afford to waste all that goodness on a mere summer fling.

Blueberry Crisp

This quick and easy dessert has all the taste and comfort of an old-fashioned blueberry pie with a lot less fat. Though it’s best with fresh summer blueberries, you can also use frozen ones.

Filling:
4 cups blueberries, thawed if frozen and picked over to remove any stems
1¼4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
11¼2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Topping:
3¼4 cup all purpose flour
1¼2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1¼2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1¼2 cup quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1¼4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1¼4 teaspoon salt
51¼2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°. Toss all the filling ingredients together in a bowl, mixing well. Pour into a 9-inch glass pie dish.

Combine flour, sugar, walnuts, oats, spices, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the butter and then rub the mixture with your fingertips until moist clumps form. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the blueberries.

Bake the crisp until berry juices thicken and the topping is golden brown, about 1 hour. Enjoy warm or at room temperature. Serves 6.

Mother-in-Law Raspberry Jam
We begged her to share her recipe with us, and Tracy Kosman generously obliged. This jam offers less sugar than most recipes and far more of the good stuff—the raspberries.

11¼2 cup sugar
11¼2 cups firm apples, shredded
1¼2 tablespoon lemon juice
4 cups raspberries

Heat the sugar in a low oven for five minutes. Put apples, lemon juice, and most of the berries in a non-aluminum pot. Squash remaining berries and add.

Prepare four 1-pint canning jars and self-sealing lids in boiling water, following manufacturer’s instructions.

Heat mixture slowly, stirring occasionally. Add warm sugar and stir over low heat to dissolve. Boil for five minutes, stirring often. Skim off foam. Don’t overcook or you’ll lose the fresh taste. The jam gels as it cools.
Ladle jam into rubber-sealed jars, leaving 1 inch at the top. Clean the lips of the jars with a clean, damp towel and seal with the lids. The jam will keep for 1 year. Makes 4 jars.

Strawberry Shortcake
In a heartening twist on an old favorite, this strawberry shortcake substitutes crisp, buttery-tasting phyllo for traditional biscuits. The result: A rich-looking showcase for the strawberry harvest with only a smidgen of the fat.

For the pastry layers:
5 phyllo sheets, thawed and kept moist under a damp towel
4 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 tablespoons sugar

For the filling:
2 pints sliced strawberries, 6 slices reserved for garnish
1 to 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other flavored liqueur
11¼2 cups chilled heavy cream
11¼2 tablespoons powdered sugar, plus additional for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl, mix the strawberries with the Grand Marnier. Let the berries sit in the liqueur, stirring occasionally while preparing the phyllo layers.

Place one sheet of phyllo on a clean, dry work surface (cover the remaining phyllo with a damp kitchen towel) and lightly brush with some of the melted butter. Sprinkle evenly with one-half teaspoon of the sugar. Place remaining sheets of phyllo, one at a time, on top of the first, brushing each with butter and sprinkling with sugar. Cut the phyllo stack into 12 4-inch squares. Using a spatula, transfer squares to ungreased cookie sheets and bake until golden and crisp, about 10 minutes. Transfer the squares to a rack to cool.

Beat the cream with the powdered sugar until it holds stiff peaks. Place one cooled phyllo square on a plate. Spoon a few strawberries onto the pastry and top with whipped cream. Place a second phyllo square on the whipped cream and spoon on more strawberries. Top with whipped cream and garnish with a strawberry slice and a dusting of powdered sugar. Serves 6.

In the Kitchen
I’ve learned the hard way that berries are wimpy when it comes to spoilage, but I hardly ever let them go bad anymore; I’m too busy building up reserves in the freezer for the long off-season. Whether or not you freeze your extras, the following suggestions can help you get the best out of your berries at the market, in your kitchen, and all year round.

Buy organic berries. Because they’re a favored snack of insects, commercial berry crops tend to carry a heavy pesticide dose, says naturopath Timothy Birdsall, author of How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine. Besides, organic often tastes better, too.

Opt for deep color. The deeper the reds and blues in your berries, the more plentiful the disease-fighting antioxidants.

Eat them quickly. “You probably have up to a week to eat them,” says Birdsall. “If they remain unblemished and plump, you’ll still get the nutrients.”

Store them unrinsed. If you don’t eat them immediately, remove any bruised ones, and refrigerate the rest in open, uncovered baskets, unrinsed. Rinsing makes them rot more quickly.

If you can’t buy fresh, buy frozen. Or freeze your own. To freeze, wash and dry berries before putting them on a cookie sheet and loading them into the freezer. Once thawed, they’re a bit mushy, so toss them frozen into smoothies, blend them into pancake or muffin batter, or use them in pies. You’ll get the same nutrients as if you were eating them fresh.

Or try dried. Dried berries are also condensed powerhouses of nutrients. They’re easy to tote along for a snack, and they make great additions to salads, cereal, smoothies, and even cookies. To order dried strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries online, try www.justomatoes.com or www.friedas.com.

Skip the pills. Experts consistently tout the advantages of eating the genuine article, whether it’s fresh, frozen, canned or dried—and point out that no berry-derived supplement has yet been evaluated for safety or efficacy.

Our Berry Top Picks
Blueberries: These rank first when it comes to cancer-fighting antioxidants. They also contain another cancer fighter, ellagic acid, and lots of fiber—almost 4 grams per cup. They’re high in vitamins and minerals too, like calcium and vitamins C and A, and low in calories.

Blackberries: These run a close second to blueberries in their defense against cancer. They also have a whopping 8 grams of fiber per cup, the equivalent of four pieces of whole wheat toast, with a quarter of the calories. Pop a few handfuls and you’re getting vitamins C, B6, A, and folate.

Strawberries: Move over, oranges: One cup of strawberries contains more vitamin C than a single orange or half cup of juice. For only 43 calories a cup, you’re also getting a solid dose of fiber, calcium, potassium, and folate. Pass the shortcake, please!

Raspberries: These gems have more cancer-fighting agents than oranges, red peppers, and red grapes. For 60 calories a cup, you are also getting fiber, vitamins C and A, and calcium and potassium. But who can think about minerals when spooning up raspberries and cream?