Bearberry

Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi L. Sprengel) is a ubiquitous procumbent evergreen shrub located throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. The fruit of bearberry is considered edible but is mealy and bland. The fruits are almost tasteless despite containing a high concentration of active ingredients in many commercial products.

Bearberry also known as Kinnikinnik or mealberry is a ground-hugging, trailing shrub to six inches in height. The drupes reach full maturity in late July-August and will remain a red color throughout the winter often into the following spring.

Bearberry is used as a urinary tract antibacterial and astringent. Bearberry is possibly effective for urinary tract inflammation.

Bearberry fruit is eaten by birds such as thrushes, wrens, grouse, robins and waxwings. Its leaves are eaten by many mammals including deer, elk, bighorn sheep and moose, and it acts as a larval food plant for some butterfly species.

The main constituents of bearberry leaves are the glycosides arbutin (5%–15%), methylarbutin (up to 4%), and small quantities of the free aglycones. Other constituents include ursolic acid, tannic acid, gallic acid, p-coumaric acid, syringic acid, galloylarbutin, gallo-tannins, and flavonoids, notably glycosides of quercetin, kaempferol, and myricetin.
Bearberry

Physical characteristics of blueberry fruits

The oak and pine forest of eastern and central North American are home to more than a dozen Vaccinium species commonly known as blubbery. Blueberry was a primary food plant for Native American.

The entire fruit is eaten. The pigment released from the blueberry’s skin may be the most valuable nutrient in the berry, as it contains potent antioxidants called anthocyanins. Blueberry fruits are round and slightly flattened in shape. Blueberries have small, mostly elliptic, short stalked leaves.

The fruit is a five-loculed, true berry resulting from the maturation of an inferior ovary. The pericarp is covered with a waxy bloom and is merged with other tissue containing chlorophyll. They have a crown like structure on the calyx end (bottom) of the fruit and a depressed ring on the top of the fruit where the stem was attached.

The skin is smooth and soft and ranges from light blue to dark blue, often with a grayish cast. Blueberries are small, usually around 1/2 inch in diameter.

The fruit of the highbush blueberry ripens from August to late September and is most variable in shape, size, color and flavor.

Among the most important characteristics being sought after the blueberry breeders are flavor, large size, light blue color (heavy coating of wax), a small scar where the pedicel detaches, easy fruit detachment for hand or machine harvest, firmness and a long storage life.

Most people prefer a sweet, crunchy fruit with a trace of acidity; however, high-acid fruit tend to store longer than low-acid ones. Other important fruit characteristics are uniform shape, size, and color, high aroma and the ability to retain texture in storage.
Physical characteristics of blueberry fruits

Fruit of blackberry

Fruit of blackberry
Scientific name: Rubus spp.
Family name:    Rosaceae

Blackberries planted and commercially cultivated worldwide. Blackberry fruits are eaten fresh or processed. The common primary products from processing are individually quick frozen, canned, pureed, juice and freeze dried fruit.

Blackberries are red to hard brown-red; are hard when they are immature; and turn black, shiny and soft when they ripen.

The ripe fruit is soft and juicy and has a very dark-purplish color with a smooth, fragile skin.

In the wild, blackberries are found growing everywhere, Some of these wild plants creep along the ground, whereas others grow upright like small trees. Three main types of blackberries have been developed into commercial crops: the trailing, erect and semi-erect blackberries.

Because eating quality does not improve after harvest, blackberries should be harvested at the shiny black stage, when fruit attains a glossy fully black color, appears and feels turgid and is easily detached from the plant.

Fruit from trailing blackberries tend to give an excellent, aromatic flavor, with less noticeable seeds than many eastern North American and European species.
Fruit of blackberry 

The Fruit of Blueberries

The Fruit of Blueberries
The single layered outer epidermis has no stomates and is covered with a cuticle about 5 um thick and a waxy bloom at maturity.

The amount of bloom varies with the cultivar and stage of maturity. Pigments are present in the epidermal and hypodermal layers, which are delineated from the rest of the cortex by a ring of vascular bundles.

The mesocarp is fairly homogenous parenchyma and contains two more rings of vascular bundles.

The carpels contain five large, highly lignified placentas to which up to 65 seeds are attached.

The locules, surrounded by a stoney endocarp, extend into the mesocarp. Stone cells are distributed unevenly throughout the mesocarp, but occur with highest frequency from just blow the epidermis to a depth of about 1.4 mm.

They occur rarely in intercarpellary areas and in sepallary tissue and infrequently in the vascular and in nectariferous tissue.

Mature stone cells usually appear completely vacuolated and have a thick heavily pitted, essentially smooth secondary wall composed of several lamellations, each about 1 um wide.

They are composed mostly of lignin and contain little cellulose. The simple wall pits puts are contagious with pits in adjacent stone cells, or with pit field in adjacent parenchyma walls.
The Fruit of Blueberries

How to make Blueberry Jam

How to make Blueberry Jam
Adding a small amount of lemon juice to blueberry jam heightens the flavor of the berries, giving the jam an extra pizzazz. Judges have remarks on the great color, flavor and texture.

Frozen blueberry may also be used for this recipe. A 16 ounce bag of frozen blueberries will yield about 2 cups of crushed fruits.

Makes about 9 half pint jars

• 5 cups crushed fresh, ripe blueberries
  
• 2 tablespoons strained fresh lemon juice
  
• 7 cups sugar
  
• ½ teaspoon unsalted butter
  
• 2 (3 ounce) pouches liquid pectin
  
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
  

In an 8 quart pan, combine the blueberries, lemon juice, sugar and butter. Over medium low heat, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. Increase the heat to medium high and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in the entire contents of both pectin pouches. Return the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. Skim off anyfoam. Stir in the cinnamon, if desired.

To prevent the jam from separating in the jars, allows the jam to cool 5 minutes before filling the jars. Gently stir the jam every minute or so to distribute the fruit. Ladle the hot jam into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Wipe the jar rims and threads with clean, damp cloth. Cover with the hot lids and apply screw rings. Process half pint jars in a 200F water bath for 10 minutes, pint jars for 15 minutes.
How to make Blueberry Jam

Blueberry: Fruit Characteristics

Blueberry: Fruit Characteristics
Fruit size is quite large for a wild Vaccinium, especially a diploid species. The general range in fruit diameters is from 5mm to 16mm, with occasional plants with fruit 19mm in diameter. Fruit size is positively correlated with number of developing seeds, and potentially viable seed number range from 5 to 29 per berry determined that plants with the largest fruit average occur in the Lexington Country, South Carolina and the coastal North Carolina/South Carolina border area.

The color of mature fruit is extremely variable, ranging from greenish-white, yellowish, light red, dark red, blue, purple-blue, purple black, reddish black, to dark purple. The surface of the fruit may be either glaucous or glabrous, and galaucousness on the fruit is generally correlated with galaucousness on vegetative parts. Fruits from plants in the South Carolina sandhill region were the most glaucous.

Fruits of V.stamineum typically have some bitterness in the skin, although the degree of bitterness and sweetness is quite variable. Fruits from the South Carolina sandhill region found to were the most palatable. Fruits typically drop to the ground as soon as they ripen and since the calyx tube is continues with the pedicel, the pedicel remains attached to the fruit.
Blueberry: Fruit Characteristics