The four berry recipes you need this summer – from tarte aux fraises to a simple raspberry sorbet
Even the sweet and simple strawberry – a berry of childhood as it has none of the tartness we come to like when we're older – weaves a kind of magic. In Iceland, where they're grown in geothermally powered greenhouses, you would think that they had special powers. In Scandinavia strawberries are associated with Frigg, the Norse goddess of marriage, who was so possessive that she wanted them all to herself. The Vikings are said to have believed that when a child dies it ascends to heaven as a strawberry. The seeds symbolised the souls of babies. That's not such a sweet idea but it chimes with Goethe's belief that only children and birds knew how strawberries should taste.
I find the best in all of them. Strawberries are innocent, I get the tartest cultivated blueberries I can find, cook with wild blackberries when they're in season and love the raspberry most of all – well, apart from the Arctic raspberry, which is known as the 'prince of berries' in Russia. That one's still on my list of 'berries to eat'.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
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The Sun
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UK's biggest holiday park is right on the beach with thousands of caravans, indoor pools and cheap stays
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