Attention all Berry Lovers! Top Tips and Expert Advice on Summer Berries.

At Country Market, we pride ourselves on giving you locally produced, natural food.

At our farm shop we aim to provide you with an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables and with so many lovely berries available at this time of year, there is no better time than now to take advantage of these wonderful super fruits.

Now the sun is shining (and seems to be sticking around) summer berries are bursting into gardens and markets everywhere and our garden centre in Hampshire is no exception! These natural foods appear around June and continue to flourish through until November.

Natural Foods: Summer Berries- the super fruits!

We have a great selection of summer berries at our farm shop and not only are these fabulous fruits tasty, they are also packed full of healthy goodness.

Blackberries, for example, are packed full of vitamin C as well as Ellagic Acid which helps protect skin cells from damaging UV rays.

Other summer fruits available at our farm shop are strawberries. Did you know that eight strawberries contain more vitamin C than an orange and are jam packed with antioxidants, helping to prevent arthritis, cancer, heart disease and memory loss?

What's more, by eating natural food you can ensure you know what you're eating.

Another berry that packs a punch is the blueberry, which contains Salicylic Acid- which is otherwise known as Aspirin. They too contain many disease fighting attributes much like strawberries, another benefit of eating natural foods.

Top Tips for Growing Strawberries by the experts at our garden centre

If you've missed out on growing strawberries this year, then we are the best garden centre in Hampshire to buy the plants from. We stock strawberry plants from Autumn onwards and you will need to plant them in March/April.

Here we have a top tips guide to planting strawberries:

• Here at Country Market's garden centre we recommend preparing the soil by removing any weeds and adding manure.
• Place the strawberry plants every 13 inches in rows around 30 inches apart.
• Plant with the crown at soil level and water well.
• Harvest the fruit in dry weather and make sure the green stalk remains with the fruit.
• Cut off old leaves to allow sunlight into the centre of the plant, ensuring a better crop next year.
• Enjoy this natural food with lashings of cream (which you can also buy at this garden centre in Hampshire)

If you don't want to grow your own then visit our farm shop and pick up some locally produced fresh fruit.

Berry recipe ideas.

Why not use the strawberries from our farm shop in a refreshing salad? Or perhaps make a 'bursting with berries' smoothie? Each one of these natural foods is unique in flavour so try experimenting with them, one of our favourite summer berry recipes is a scrumptious strawberry and avocado salad!

Country Market Garden Centre is happy to provide gardening advice as well as stocking a great selection of fresh fruit and vegetables and locally produced natural food which is available in our farm shop. To contact Country Market please call 01420 472 486.