Berry

Goji berries are the fruit of the common wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) and the Chinese wolfberry (Lycium chinense), both of which, like tomatoes and potatoes, belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). In Germany the berry is also known as Wolfsbeere or Bocksdornbeere. The main cultivation area of the goji berry is the Ningxia Valley in China, but the deciduous shrub, which can reach up to four metres in height, also grows wild in south-eastern Europe and throughout Asia. In Tibet, particularly in the Himalayan region, the goji fruit is so highly prized that people even hold festivals in its honour.
The thorny branches bear grey-green, elongated leaves, and between June and August the plant produces purple flowers directly in the leaf axils on short stalks. From these flowers the red fruits develop between August and October. After harvest the elongated, ovoid berries, up to 1.2 cm long, are either processed into juice or dried. Almost all of the important nutrients are nevertheless retained. In flavour, goji berries are comparable to cranberries and cherries.

The fruit, so popular because of its high antioxidant content, bears a striking resemblance to the blueberry: it is round, dark purple-black and between 1 and 2.5 cm in size. About 90% of the berry consists of a single, inedible seed, so only the pulp and the skin are processed. Açaí (pronounced ass-a-i) can be eaten raw, but the fruit is so perishable and scarcely transportable when fresh that it is usually processed quickly and arrives in Europe as juice, powder or purée. Its fatty, earthy and nutty aroma is unfamiliar to many Europeans and reminds some of chocolate. Medicine men from the Amazon jungle have long used the berries of the tropical thatch palm Euterpe oleracea for medicinal purposes. The palm prefers the regularly flooded soils of the Amazon region. Its yellow flowers, arranged in a plait-like fashion, bloom from September to January; later three to six kilograms of açaí fruit can be harvested per plant cluster.