Black Berries From Vietnam Sold By Vietnamese Woman In Open Market Of China Border Town.

Hand picked black mountain berries brought over the border to the open market of a China border town by an older Vietnamese woman, would have provided her with some reward for her efforts if they were all sold. Chinese friends were delighted with their find and bought some of them, but only after haggling over the price that the older woman was asking for her precious berries. It is difficult to imagine the amount of back breaking effort taken to pick these mountain berries, but at least for the Vietnamese farmers concerned, the labour would have been worthwhile, and implemented their income.

The black berries were not the only fruit or vegetables on display at the open market, and they were all fresh looking. One fruit/vegetable bought had the appearance of a long white radish, but proved to be very refreshing to the taste and certainly solved the problem of thirst. It was a very hot on the day we visited the market so the white radish was a very appropriate vegetable to eat!

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*** The botanical definition of a berry is a simple fruit produced from a single ovary, such as a grape or a tomato. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. The flowers of these plants have a superior ovary formed by the fusion of two or more carpels. The seeds are embedded in the flesh of the ovary.

However, in everyday English, a berry is a term for any small edible fruit. Most berries are juicy, round or semi-oblong, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and don't have a stone or pit, although many seeds may be present. Many berries, such as the tomato are edible, but others in the same family, such as the fruits of the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and the fruits of the potato (Solanum tuberosum) are poisonous to humans. A plant that bears berries is said to be bacciferous. Src:Wikipedia.Org ***