boysenberry tales from the land of hazelnuts
Our Sam has just come back from the States where she's been learning everything there is to know about boysenberries.
For those of you who have never seen a boysenberry in the flesh before, they look like a Sumo blackberry and are thought to be a cross between a loganberry, blackberry and raspberry (though no one is really sure).
Here's an nice shot of some boysenberries in the early morning sunshine.
We get our boysenberries from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, a beautiful and extremely fertile area where they also grow hazelnuts, grass seed and Christmas trees. A handy place to be if you're planning on making a hazelnut and grass seed boysenberry pie in December.
And here's a photo of Sam during boysenberry harvest, looking slightly confused
The reason she's looking a little dazed is that it was rather early in the morning when this photograph was taken.
One of the biggest threat to berries is field heat, so instead of picking them in the middle of the day when it's very hot, the berries are harvested at night when it's much cooler. That way, they're picked at their best and are sorted immediately by the side of the field to ensure the freshest, tastiest crop possible.
It's all done mechanically as it's quite difficult to tell by eye when a boysenberry is ripe. The fruit tends to colour up very quickly so it's hard to know which berries are ready and which ones aren't. The machine has a comb-n-shake type action, which means the ripe berries get shaken off and the less ripe ones get to stay in the sun that little bit longer.
You can have a go at shaking your own boysenberries here, though combing smoothie through your hair afterwards is not recommended.
Comments
This isn't relevant to the post above but I didn't know where else to comment. I've just seen something that made me very happy and made me laugh out loud. In our local Tesco, Tropicana has an end-of-aisle display with cartons on promotion at two for £4. Above it is Innocent's orange juice at two cartons for £3 - people are stocking up like there's no tomorrow. Good for you.
why are you not in the Spanish market place?
I grew up picking boysenberries in the Willamette Valley as a child and am thrilled to see them making it into your great drinks! A wonderful berry to join your drinks, for sure! :)
I am originally from Oregon as well and it brings a smile to my face to think that I can get a little taste of home from innocent!
I live in California and I miss innocent smoothies and juicy water more than anything. Well, you and the friends I made during my semester abroad. And now you're getting West Coast boysenberries! Tell me, can you come to California soon? And bring some smoothies?
You dont mention what are the benefits of eating bosenberries. whats in them?
Boysenberries are high in vitamin C and fibre. They also contain high levels of anthocyanins.
Hope you enjoy the boysenberries in our lovely Blackberries, Raspberries & Boysenberries recipe.
I want that t-shirt Sam's wearing (:
At the moment we are concentrating our effort on being the favourite smoothie juice company in our existing markets, which are (take a deep breath) UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. As you can imagine this is keeping us pretty busy at the moment.
We think there is potential for our lovely drinks in countries far and wide, including Spain, but for now we are going to stick with where we are.
Nice story. I love this.
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