Berries: A Global History
My latest book is now available, and I really hope you’ll read it!
“Berries are our food, our drink, our medicine; they get us high, they tell our lore, they underscore our social identities. Though they be diminutive and endearingly sweet, they should not be underestimated. There is no denying that berries have a magical hold on humans.”
Fun berry facts:
- Blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries aren’t true berries at all, but bananas, oranges, cucumbers, and eggplants are.
- Wiccans believe that elderberries grant invisibility and second sight; that they cure the bites of mad dogs; and that they give the user eternal youth.
- In 1973 the world’s first flavored lip gloss, Bonne Belle’s Lip Smackers, was introduced to American markets with a strawberry flavor.
- When she wasn’t discovering radioactive elements and winning Nobel Prizes, physicist and chemist Marie Curie evidently perfected her gooseberry jelly recipe in 1898 – just one month after discovering polonium.
- The prototype for the Frisbee came from a blueberry pie tin in the late 1930s.
- A French brewers’ guide published in 1828 offers instructions on brewing Bière framboisée dite bière des dames, or roughly, ‘Raspberry Beer, Known as Ladies’ Beer’.
Look for Berries at your local bookseller’s, or right here: