I get a kick out of advertisements that claim their product contains ‘real’ food …

When a processed, packaged product boasts that one of its ingredients is ‘real’, you have to wonder what else the product contains.

I decided to investigate a breakfast cereal that brags about containing ‘real’ strawberries, and sure enough the product contains freeze dried strawberries … ingredient number 23 of a whopping 38 ingredients.

Other interesting things about this ingredient list is that the word ‘sugar’ shows up 4 times, and on closer examination I discovered that there are an additional 4 types of sugars (honey, molasses, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup) listed AND a chemical sugar (sucralose).

That’s 9 forms of sugar to go with those freeze-dried real strawberries!

Tomorrow morning I’m going to slice some really-real juicy ripe fresh strawberries onto my really-real bowl of brown rice and top it off with really-real almond milk.

Here is the complete ingredient list of the breakfast cereal I investigated. The numbers, indentations and colours are my additions.

1. Whole Grain Wheat
2. Wheat Bran
3. Sugar
     Berry Flavored Oat Cluster
          Toasted Oats
               4. Rolled Oats
               5. Sugar
               6. Soybean Oil
               7. Honey
               8. Molasses
          9. Sugar
          10. Rolled Oats
          Strawberry Flavored Apples
               11. Dried Apples
               12. Artificial Flavor
               13. Citric Acid
               14. Red #40
               15. Sodium Sulfite
          16. Corn Syrup
          17. Brown Sugar
          18. Natural
          19. And Artificial Flavor
          20. BHT [For Freshness]
21. Wheat Flour
22. High Fructose Corn Syrup
23. Freeze Dried Strawberries
24. Salt
25. Malt Flavoring
26. Natural And Artificial Flavors
27. Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
28. Sucralose
29. Niacinamide
30. Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6)
31. Reduced Iron
32. Folic Acid
33. Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
34. Vitamin A Palmitate
35. BHT (Preservative)
36. Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1)
37. Vitamin D
38. Vitamin B12

Its berry season in Alberta and the farmer’s markets are spilling over with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, Saskatoons and any number of specialty berries.

Fresh, local berries don’t hang around in the stores for long, so now is the time to purchase them in bulk and store them in the freezer.

I don’t wash berries before freezing, as it can damage them. I have never regretted that decision. If you feel you must wash them first, make sure they are thoroughly dry before proceeding.

Freezing berries for winter use couldn’t be easier. Here’s what you do.

1. Place fresh berries in a single layer on a cookie sheet or tray with sides (so the berries don’t roll off).
2. Remove and discard any berries that have been damaged or spoiled.
3. Place tray in freezer for 30 minutes, or until the berries have firmed up. They don’t have to be frozen solid yet, just firm enough that they no longer squish easily.
4. Place the partially frozen berries in freezer jars, bags or containers and store in the deep freeze for up to one year.

By freezing the berries using this method you are able to store them in larger containers without the danger of them clumping together. This eliminates the need to pre-portion the berries into individual, small bags. Now you can easily access as many or as few berries as you want at a time without having to thaw out the whole container.