Do you love the summer like I do?    Summer brings brilliant berries and pesty mold.   Berries are so good for our bones.

Keeping them fresh - What about the mold that grows so quickly?

Have you ever purchased a pint of those mouthwatering local raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries to find them growing mold the next day? Total bummer!

Quoting Dr. Andrew Weill "blueberries provide lots of antioxidant compounds that are good for our general health.  A study suggests that they may help strengthen bones too.  An animal study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has shown that baby rats fed foods containing 10 percent freeze-dried blueberry powder developed significantly more bone mass than baby rats who didn't get blueberry power in their food."

If you follow Dr. Joel Fuhrman's ANDI score:

Aggregate Nutrient Density Index, ANDI brings to life the H = N/C health equation or

Health = Nutrient divided by Calories.  This formula brings awareness to the micronutrient density of your diet vs. simply counting calories.   The ANDI Nutrient Score is a rating system based on 0-1000 adding up most of the vitamins and minerals they deliver for each calorie consumed.  Within the fruit selection BERRIES have the highest ANDI score.

Here's a simple tip that works like a charm; give them a vinegar bath.

Recipe:  Ingredients

1 Tablespoon Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

10 Tablespoons filtered water

Fresh berries

• Prepare the mixture in a large bowl.
• Place your berry beauties in the mixture and swirl around.
• Drain, rinse; although not necessary to rinse as the mixture is so diluted that you can't taste the vinegar.
• Place your washed berries in the fridge in a covered container.

The vinegar kills any mold spores and other bacteria that may linger on the surface of the berries.

Raspberries will last a week or more - really.

Strawberries go almost two weeks without getting moldy and soft.

Buy organic berries.  Strawberries in particular are heavily sprayed with pesticides and are listed on the Dirty Dozen List you can find here:  Dirty Dozen.

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From my delicious bones to yours,

Irma