?If you are interested in "health foods" then Goji berries are most definitely worth looking at. Traditionally grown in regions of china/asia, and used to help combat heart disease, cancer and skin damage from sun exposure, the goji berry contains 18 amino acids, which equates to about 12% protein.

They also contain as much as 21 minerals, including decent amounts of zinc, iron, copper, calcium, germanium, selenium, phosphorus, vitamins B1, B2, B6, vitamin E and are a rich source of beta-carotene. Goji berries also contain polysaccharides which are found in immune tonic herbs such as echinacea, mushrooms, and astragalus.

The berries look a little like rosehips and are now grown and cultivated extensively in europe. The fruit is usually dried and then eaten, or crushed to make goji berry juice.

Unfortunately back in 2007 there was an issue with the goji within the European union. Legislation stated that unless the fruit could be shown to have been commonly eaten in the E U for more than 10 years, then sales would have to cease until they had gone through a two year approval process.

Fortunately the berries were subsequently deemed to have been in use since 1997, allowing the berries to continue to be commercially sold. However, since then, the price of goji berries has shot up, so if you want to enjoy all the benefits these fantastic nutrient rich berries offer, then my advice would be to grow your own! At present you can still buy the goji berry plant from good garden centres. I'm not sure if they will always be available, so you might want to get a couple as soon as you can.

The plant is quite easy to grow and one/two plants will provide you with plenty of berries to harvest. Once your bush is full, give it a shake, collect all the berries and leave them to dry in the sun or inside. Once dried you can eat them as they are, or add them to recipes etc. Alternatively you could juice them up and add to smoothes while you smugly turn your nose up to EU bureaucrats who think they know how to look after our health better than we do!

Until next time...you know where to come.

 — Ant —