Guide To Carbs in Fruit

Luckily I was never that fond of fruit. On the other hand my favourites were bananas! Also melons, though not watermelons, strawberries, sultanas, apples, orange or better mandarin JUICE, and at Christmas figs and dates. Obviously I was doomed.

Now pretty much all I eat are blueberries and strawberries, and occasionally cherries. A bit surprised blackberries are so low - they weren't when mother made them into jelly. She also made marmalade from Seville oranges and hordes of sugar.

In her later years she used to get attacks of gout. Eventually we worked out these coincided with her eating rhubarb - oh yes I used to like that too - laden with sugar, and had nothing to do with eating purines like the doctor told her.

Now don't forget your ten a day, and any dietician (except the rare one with a brain) will tell you it is important to eat more fruit to guard against amputations. Yeah right . . .

One fruit I haven't had for a time is gooseberries ... I can remember pies and crumbles being made using these fruits.

Health benefits of gooseberries
Gooseberries are low in calories; 100 g of fresh berries hold just 44 calories. As in blackcurrants, they too have significantly high amounts of phenolic phytochemicals, especially flavones and anthocyanins. Both of these compounds have been found to have numerous health-benefiting effects against cancer, aging, inflammation, and neurological diseases.

They moderately good in anti-oxidant values. At 3277 μmol TE/100g, gooseberries have oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) value, which can be comparable to that of red currants (3387umol TE/100g).

The berries are an excellent source of vitamin-C. 100 g of fresh berries provide 27.7 μg or 46% of daily-recommended intake values of vitamin C. Research studies have shown that consumption of fruits rich in vitamin-C helps the human body develop immunity against infectious agents, and help scavenge harmful oxygen free radicals from the human body.

They carry a small amount of vitamin-A. 100 g berries have 290 IU or 10% of RDA of this vitamin. Vitamin-A required for maintaining the integrity of mucosa and skin and essential component of the visual cycle. Also, consumption of natural fruits rich in vitamins and flavonoid antioxidants has been found to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.

Fresh berries contain small amounts of essential vitamins such as pyridoxine (vitamin B-6), pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), folates, and thiamin (vitamin B-1). Some of these vitamins are essential in the sense that the body requires them for metabolism from external sources to replenish.

Furthermore, gooseberries contain moderate levels of minerals such as copper, calcium, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, and potassium.

Indian gooseberries (amla) are exceptionally rich in vitamin C. 100 g of amla carry astoundingly 445 mg of vitamin-C. However, their much of anti-oxidant properties come from other anti-oxidant compounds in them like tannins (emblicanin, punigluconin, pedunculagin, etc.)


Read more here
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/gooseberries.html

All the best Jan

Gooseberries yeugh! Sorry I never liked them. They were one of Gran's favourites though, I was regularly served with gooseberry tart because she had several bushes. Spiky bastards.

I can relate to this because growing up my Gran had gooseberry bushes growing in the garden (don't think they are popular nowadays) so gooseberries were often on the menu.

Rhubarb was another popular fruit, both Gran and my parents had plenty of rhubarb growing ...

All the best Jan

Ah now I DID like rhubarb. Yes both Gran and mother had their rhubarb clump, covered by an upturned pot or bucket to blanch it until it grew so big it pushed the pot off.

Trouble is it does really need quite a lot of sugar or it is really sour.

Now I'm remembering loganberries, a cross between blackberries and raspberries, that escaped from a garden backing onto our allotment. They were quite nice but I don't think I ever saw them for sale.

I looked up loganberries, yes a cross between blackberries and raspberries ...

Apparently, Judge Logan discovered the loganberry growing in his California garden in 1880. It has remained popular ever since for its large, succulent, conical red fruits, which have a rich tangy flavour. They ripen after raspberries but before blackberries. The plant needs similar conditions to blackberries - sunny site with fertile, well-drained soil - with a little more heat and sunlight. 'LY 654' is a thornless form, with light green, smooth stems, that has been selected for consistent health and performance. The brittle canes are easily damaged by strong winds unless tied in securely to wires, ideally as a fan-shape. The Royal Horticultural Society has given it their Award of Garden Merit.


Words and picture from here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/797.shtml

Like blackberries and raspberries, loganberries can be eaten fresh out of hand and they can also be used raw in things like a  fruit salad... with double cream!

However they are more 'carby' than some fruits so it depends on what can be tolerated - more facts here
https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/food/berries/carbohydrate

I think loganberries are more readily available in the US than the UK ... has anyone seen them for sale?

All the best Jan

Never seen them for sale but have seen them grown in gardens. I think my aunt with the fruit farm did them and sold them from her roadside stall, but too long ago to be certain.

Before my parents' house was built - in 1911 - the land was an orchard. They had a massive Bramley apple tree (several of the other houses also had huge old trees of different varieties, also plums and pears) so we often had apple pie, and sometimes plum pudding too. They also put in some eating apple trees, and gran had a small orchard too with several apple varieties and pears, mostly eaters rather than cookers. My ex and I bought "our" house in the same village, and decades after gran had died (we met the new owners of her old house) the garden shed still smelled of apples and creosote, which flashed me immediately back to childhood. I wonder how many of these trees are still there.

My grandparents and my parents loved their gardens and did have fruit trees/bushes ... vegetable plots as well as the more traditional country garden plants ... it was a joy to be in the garden.

We too were fortunate to have houses with quite large gardens, and grew some of our own vegetables and fruit.

With changing times the size of gardens seems to be shrinking and many more both young and old are living in flats ... the magic of the garden may not be so readily available, which is a shame.

Yes, we are fortunate to be able to go to our local shops and enjoy fruits (and vegetables) many of which are not always in season, but are flown in especially!

From a low carbers point of view, I am always pleased to see berries that can be enjoyed with some double cream, or for a change clotted cream ...

All the best Jan

All the houses in my parents' street and the adjacent one had huge gardens. In between was a bungalow with its own area of land. The big house on the corner was probably the owner of the original orchard, the bungalow may have been for servants.

Some years after we sold up and moved out, the ex-neighbours sent us a bunch of newspaper clippings. The owners of the bungalow applied for planning permission to build some tower blocks. Then they agreed to build some normal sized houses if the owners of the houses in both streets agreed to sell them half their gardens. This one went right up to the wire before being defeated.

Our garden here is comparatively small, but a house further up the road sold some of their previously large garden to have two bungalows built. Lots of "infill" development nowadays. On the other hand, some years back and I don't know if it's still true, there was a big upsurge in allotment ownership. Also urban chickens.

Had my first asparagus this week! Not entirely local, it was from Norfolk, the farm a few villages away is not quite ready yet.