the divine blueberry

We were at the dufferin grove farmers market this afternoon and I splurged on organic wild blueberries. 11$ for a container! when I got home my smart boy Aidan says, "they are worth it mommy, they are so delicious"! Whenever I buy blueberries he quickly asks if they are wild. I think I created a food snob! The 3 kids gobbled them up by the handful in minutes flat.

I was interviewed recently for a magazine about the health benefits of blueberries and thought I would share a few points with you here.

• Blueberries are one of the few fruits native to North America. Forget the goji berry, go for the local and less expensive blueberry!
• the US department of Agriculture determined out of 24 fruits, 23 vegetables, 16 herbs and spices, 10 nuts and 4 dried fruits, that blueberries were the highest in total antioxidant capacity per serving. Sounds good to me!
• Wild blueberries are much smaller than the big, juicy cultivated ones. About 80-90 cultivated blueberries fit into a cup, while the same size can hold up to 150 wild ones. The supernutrients are in the skin, so we find a cup of wild blueberries have almost twice the blueberry skin as the cup of cultivated ones. Twice the skin, twice the antioxidant power!

So go support your local farmers and pick yourself up some local blueberries!