The Time is (Almost) Ripe for a Berry Promotion
Restaurants USA, May 1996

Midsummer is the perfect time to pick a pailful of juicy berries for a menu promotion guaranteed to generate fruitful sales.
By Ethel Hammer

For freshness and taste, nothing matches the blueberry just picked off the bush, the raspberry and the blackberry snatched from the briar or the newly plucked strawberry. Midsummer is the high season for berries, and it’s the perfect time for berry menu promotions. Our annual berry promotion sparks more interest than all of our other summer special events. So, head for your local farm, roadside stand or farmers’ market to pick a pailful of juicy (and fat-free) berries guaranteed to generate fruitful summertime sales.

A berry by any other name

For all the true berries customers gobble down at my operation, they also consume countless impostors. Many fruits, like strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, just borrow the moniker “berry,” a term that correctly applies only to more simply constructed fruit. Grapes and tomatoes are true berries, as are blueberries and currants.Raspberries, blackberries and strawberries, because they are composed of many fruity sacs grouped together, are technically referred to as “aggregate fruit.” But regardless of their authenticity, summertime is the perfect time for berry promotions of all kinds.

Following are berry high seasons and areas of greatest production.

Strawberries

. The North American strawberry season extends from mid-April through mid-July, with the highest level of production in May. You can get strawberries year-round thanks to imported product, but the cost is much higher than if purchased in season in the states. Eighty percent of America’s strawberries come from California.

Blueberries

. Blueberries are available from mid-June through September, with the highest production in July and August. Cultivated blueberries grow across America—in the East, the South, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest, and in British Columbia. New Jersey and Michigan produce the greatest supply. Wild blueberries are harvested in Maine and eastern Canada.

Blackberries and raspberries

. Black-berries and raspberries grow wild throughout most of America, with heavy commercial cultivation in the Pacific Northwest. The blackberry and raspberry high season is July and August. Blackberries are available from late April through October, raspberries from May through October.

Strawberries sizzle.

Of all the berries, the strawberry is America’s avorite. In 1994, Americans ate 4 pounds of fresh strawberries per person, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Sweet strawberries keep my registers ringing all summer long. I serve strawberries in dishes such as “Burritos with Strawberries and Fontina Cheese,” “Shrimp, Strawberry and Cashew Salad,” “Fresh Grilled Mahimahi with Strawberry-Lime Salsa,” “Cinnamon Toast with Strawberries, Bananas and Cream Cheese,” “Strawberry Blintzes with Sour Cream” and “Pistachio-Crusted Flounder with Strawberry Jerez Coulis.” Strawberries mix well with oranges, grapefruit, rhubarb, pineapples, peaches and other berries, too.

I like to give my customers a bit of berry trivia on the menu. For example, the modern strawberry was created at Versailles, when a Virginia strawberry was crossed with a cousin from Chile. Colonial strawberries reputedly grew so lush, they stained grazing cows’ legs red. Old folkloric tales say that strawberries or their leaves can whiten teeth and chase away goblins, as well as cure nightmares, stomachaches, sore eyes, broken bones, bad breath, blood disorders and gout. Strawberries have also reportedly been used to remove freckles and to banish pimples and sunburn.

The perfect strawberry should be ripe, red and juicy, and should melt in your mouth. So bypass unripe berries with white tops or tips. Instead, choose bright red, plump berries, that smell heavenly and have fresh leaf caps.

Blueberries will put sales in the black

North America produces 95 percent of the world’s blueberries — 307 million pounds in 1995 alone. Wild blueberries are smaller and darker than cultivated blueberries — but don’t let the names fool you. In certain instances, the wild variety is better behaved than the cultivated. For instance, when you bake wilds, they don’t bleed as much into your muffins as the cultivated berries do.

The blueberry is America’s second-favorite frozen berry. Americans consume 2 pounds of frozen berries per person per year, of which .5 pound were blueberries, 1.3 pounds strawberries and .1 pound of both raspberries and blackberries, according to USDA statistics. Nothing beats a simple bowl of “big blues” floating in yogurt, or smothered in sour or sweet cream. My customers devour them with bananas, strawberries, melons and peaches on our salad bar. Dishes such as “Sliced Cantaloupe with Blueberries and Italian Ham” and “Blueberry-Pineapple Salsa on Cold Chicken” are big hits as luncheon specials.

The saying that bigger is better certainly applies to blueberries. Although some small berries are as tasty as the large ones, the biggest blueberries really are the yummiest. Unlike most berries, blueberries can be refrigerated for up to three weeks before use. But try to serve them as soon as possible, because their taste diminishes with time. Aging blueberries get progressively darker as they lose their “bloom,” a natural, dusty wax that indicates freshness. I pick firm, dry blueberries, avoiding unripe, red-tinged blueberries and the shriveled, soft berries.

In folklore, blueberries were reputed to have the power to cure coughs, blood impurities, scurvy and stomachaches. Native Americans used dried blueberries in stews and soups; they rubbed powdered dried blueberries into meats. Blueberries inspired quaint-sounding colonial dishes like “Blueberry Buckle,” “Blueberry Grunt” and “Blueberry Flummery.”

The aristocratic raspberry

Raspberries are so expensive you cannot help but feel like an aristocrat when nibbling them. Martha Custis, reportedly the richest widow in the colonies when George Washington courted her, served “Preserved Raspberries,” “Raspberry Syrup” and a “Quidony of Raspberries and Red Wine.” Martin Van Buren’s political opponents considered him so wanton and extravagant, they accused him of “wallowing in raspberries.”

So when I want to create a decadent, classy dessert, I throw in raspberries. Raspberries actually come in various colors — shades of red, black, yellow, purple, mauve and amber. Greek mythology tells us the raspberry was white until a nymph pricked her finger on a raspberry thorn and her blood colored it — a whimsical bit of trivia to add to your berry menu.

Raspberries complement dark chocolate and add a tangy touch to desserts such as “Raspberry Chocolate Brownies,” “Chocolate Fondue with Raspberries and Strawberries,” “Raspberry Souffle” and “Raspberry Mousse.” Raspberries pair brilliantly with peaches in our “Raspberry-Peach Melba.” Wherever you put them, raspberries add drama and flair.

You can also use raspberries in soups, sauces, salads, condiments, dressings and drinks. Try “Raspberry Champagne Soup,” “Chicken Breasts in Raspberry Sauce,” and “Raspberry Carrot Slaw,” or “Raspberry Mustard” on ham or turkey. A raspberry sauce gives cachet to duck and pork. “Raspberry Vinaigrette,” a sign of these health-conscious times, tastes great with chicken salad, melon salad or shrimp salad. Raspberries can also jazz up your drink menu with snazzy sippers such as “Raspberry Granitas,” “Raspberry-Lime Rickeys” and low-fat–milk “Raspberry Frosties.”

Raspberries can be made into great preserves, jams and jellies, but I like them best raw. They must be handled with the utmost care and used immediately because they can mold within days of being picked. Raspberries can be refrigerated for a brief time, but should be covered. Soft berries should be stored in a single layer.

Blackberries add an exotic touch

Blackberry juice has been used to mark meats and to dye sailors uniforms and ribbons. The berries have been reputed to cure loose teeth, gout, anemia, sore throats and cholera. One thing is indisputable: The blackberry can cure summer-menu doldrums.

On hot summer days when appetites fail, my diners get excited by uncommon dishes like “Mesclun Salad with Blackberries in a Raspberry Vinaigrette,” “Cold Blackberry Soup with Cinnamon-Nut Dumplings,” “Blackberry Barbecue Sauce” on seafood, roast beef, fowl or grilled meats, and “Grilled Duck with Blackberry Sauce.” I also use them in comfort-food creations like “Blackberries with Cream Cheese on Blackberry Banana Bread,” “Blackberry Pancakes,” “Grilled Chicken Salad with Fresh Blackberries” and “Blackberry Apple Pie.” I get kids in on the berry excitement with “Peanut-Butter Sandwiches with Blackberry Jam.”

Wash blackberries gently and dry on a paper towel right before using. Before washing berries, you can refrigerate them briefly in a ceramic dish covered with plastic wrap. Experience has taught me to pick jet-black berries, which are the most flavorful. Avoid overripe, dull, mushy berries. Incorporate blackberry hybrids into your menu to give your customers a wider range of taste sensations. Blackberry hybrid varieties include boysen-berries, loganberries and tayberries.

The pick of the pail

Countless varieties of cultivated and wild berries are available in differing amounts in various parts of the country and abroad. So pick your favorite berry and host a berry menu promotion for juicy summertime profits.

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