Move over blueberries and broccoli: the new superfood on the plot is the goji berry. Diana McAdam introduces the Chinese wonder shrub you can grow at home.
Britain's love affair with growing fruit and veg has hit new heights, thanks to the campaigning work of green gardeners and foodies, and increased awareness that what we eat affects the way we look and feel.
It is now widely understood that fresh fruit and vegetables contain the vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants that are vital components of a healthy diet. The number of gardeners growing superfoods - such as blueberries, broccoli, spinach and tomatoes - has also risen dramatically. New on the plot are goji berries, which are arguably the most super of the superfoods and surprisingly easy to cultivate at home. Dieticians tend to avoid the term "superfood" and prefer to talk about a super diet, where the emphasis is on a balanced regime rich in a wide variety of fruit - especially berries - and veg. But they do not dispute that some foods - such as the fruit of Lycium barbarum, known as goji berries - pack a harder than average nutritional punch. This fruit, which is about 2cm (1in) in diameter with a mild, sweet liquorice flavour, has recently been rated No 1 on the ORAC scale (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) by the US Department of Agriculture. The scale was developed to measure the antioxidant level in foods and, the higher the score, the more capable that food is of destroying the free radicals that cause cancer and speed up the aging process. |
Goji berries scored a spectacular 25,300 per 100g, while prunes, which came second, had a mere 5,770 per 100g. According to Gillian McKeith, the presenter of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat, they have 2,000 more antioxidants and 500 times the amount of vitamin C per weight as oranges.
They also contain beta-carotene (their ability to improve vision has been documented for more than 1,500 years in China), vitamins B1 and B2, minerals and amino acids. Goji berries and lycium bark play important roles in traditional Chinese medicine and are believed, among other things, to strengthen the immune system, help eyesight, protect the liver, boost the sperm count and improve circulation.
Another traditional property of goji fruit is their ability to benefit the complexion and it is also claimed that they enhance longevity (a Chinaman, Li Quing Yuen, who ate them every day, is said to have lived to the age of 250).
Most of the goji berries that are sold in this country are cultivated in China, but they also grow in Mongolia and on vines in the sheltered Himalayan valleys of Tibet and Nepal, where they have been eaten for centuries and are nicknamed "happy berries" because of the sense of wellbeing they are said to induce.
They can be dried (most that you buy in this country are dried), eaten raw or brewed into a tea. So although they are new to many of us, Chinese supermarkets have been importing goji berries to this country since the 1970s. The young shoots and leaves of the lycium bush are also grown commercially in China and can be used as a flavouring or lightly cooked and eaten as a vegetable. The flavour is said to be cress-like but has also been described as pepperminty.
However, what is perhaps most surprising about this wonder shrub is that, according to William Aiton's Hortus Kewensis, published in 1789 (Aiton was director of Kew from 1759 until his death in 1793), Lycium barbarum was being grown as an ornamental plant in the Royal Gardens of St James's Palace in 1696.
The Victorians were also very fond of the berries. There is a reference from 1830 to goji berries being tied as beads around the necks of teething children - although they would have known the plant by a different name. Goji is a relatively recent invention, based on the Chinese Gou Qi Zi. Other names for it include Chinese wolfberry, matrimony vine, Chinese boxthorn, red medlar, vicar's tea party and the Duke of Argyll's tea tree.
Stephen Shirley, the owner of Victoriana Nursery Gardens, began cultivating goji plants last year. "They are extremely hardy and can grow to 10ft tall. I hadn't heard that the Victorians loved and grew them - or not for their fruit, anyway - but it would not surprise me if they were used as a topiary plant.
Rapid in growth and resilient to hard pruning, they are ideal for topiary." As Stephen suggests, L. barbarum can be grown as an informal hedge, and will even thrive by the sea. It has an extensive root system, so can be used to stabilise sandy banks. Tolerant of pruning, it can regrow from old wood, but any trimming is best carried out in spring.
So, far from being exotic and temperamental, these wonder plants are tough, easy-growing and self-fertile, and will thrive in practically any soil type and at any temperature. Why not grow your own?
A single plant will produce more than 2lb (1kg) of berries in its second year. You could save a fortune and perhaps live to be 250.
From The Telegraph
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