vegoftheweek

Inside The Oven: Marionberry fruit makes peanut butter fashionable. Week Links: More berry info for your reading buck.

Peanut butter and jelly has never really done it for me and I find a peanut butter sandwich on bread to be one of the most boring meals next to brown rice. However, it’s been enjoyable to make peanut butter sandwiches a little more hip and fashionable using a variety of other fruit spreads, such as raspberry. After choosing the fruit spread of choice, I dress it up even further to prepare it for the catwalk of my taste buds by using Wasa crackers or a whole wheat baguette vs. plain bread. And when I really want my peanut butter sandwich to make an impression, I use Marionberry spread.

I was introduced to Marionberry spread after a friend came back from a trip to Oregon. What exactly is a Marionberry? Although similarly sounding, it’s not the former mayor of Washington, D.C., but actually a combination of Chehalem and Olallie (commonly called “olallieberry”) berries that was concocted by G.F. Waldo with USDA-ARS in Corvallis, Oregon in 1956. It was tested extensively in the food nerd laboratory in Marion County, Oregon, hence the name. Learn more about Marionberry and how to even make your own spread after the break…

For those living in Oregon or on the west coast such as California, you can probably walk into dozens of stores and grab a jar of Marionberry spread along with peanut butter easily. For those in other parts of the country, you can either use this as an excuse to fly to the west coast regularly or order it online.

A type of blackberry, I was told that Marionberry spread would not be as sweet as your traditional fruit spreads. However, I found it to be very rich and sweet, but then again, I am not too tolerant for extreme sugary sweet things, luckily, and I am able to escape the common addictions of hard candy, high-fructose corn syrup soft drinks, and the pleasant experiences of having multiple root canals.

If you’re interested in making your own spread from scratch, it’s very basic, like other jam and jelly recipes. Berries, sugar or sweetener of choice, and sometimes a little pectin and off you go. And peanut butter and Marionberry is just a start. Try spreading it on pancakes or waffles, as shown in the picture. And when you think of others uses for it, please write and let us all know!

Week Links:

Freeze Greatly Affected Argentina’s Berry Crops (The Packer)

Interested In Growing Your Own Blackberries? (E Organic Food)

Fruit Spread With Strawberries and Lemonade (Frazgofeasting)