Black Raspberries at Heemans

Have you ever heard of a black raspberry? I have not, until this past weekend. After I hit Trails End Market, I stopped in at Heemans to see if they had strawberries available still and to my summer delight they did, but as a double and triple bonus they also had ripe raspberries and cherries! In case you are wondering, Heemans only grows the strawberries on site, but they also ship in a variety of berries from other parts of Ontario. Well, I was eyeing up the raspberries and noticed what I thought were blackberries stacked beside them. I inquired if they were indeed blackberries and the girl at the counter informed me that no, instead they were indeed Black Raspberries! I am sure you know what happened next – of course, I could not resist a new fruity treat and I bought a pint of them. I popped one of the little black lovelies into my mouth as soon as they were set in front of me and let out all sorts of “ommmms and yummmms” and even a “nosh noise”. You have to try them, trust me – they are so good! They are slightly smaller and much sweeter, it seems – no tartness. They also feel a little “tighter” than the red variety, like the berry goodness is more concentrated or something. Before I started to write this post,I thought I would look up these black raspberries to make sure they are ”legit” and to see if there is anything extra special about them and well… there is.. something really special. There are studies being conducted right now at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Centre that suggest that the anthocyanins (a type of flavonoid) that are found particularly in black raspberries inhibited growth of esophageal carcinogens and stimulated apoptosis (cell death) in rats that were injected with an esophageal carcinogen (cancer causing). How cool is that?! As if we needed a reason to eat more raspberries,surely not – but it just goes to show you all of the secret benefits that are hiding right there in our food. I have been eating these on my granola and yogurt each morning, I am not sure what good they are doing me on the inside, but I know they put a smile on my face every time I open the fridge and see there are still some left! Heemans Greenhouse and Strawberry Farm http://www.heeman.ca/  Read More