Sunday, July 20, 2014

Picking raspberries

The strawberries are just about over. After a frantic month of picking every other day, we have about sixty pounds in the freezer, oh joy!

But yesterday's picking only yielded about three pints of strawberries, just enough for fresh eating. However now the raspberries are ripe.

As with the strawberries, I spent years fussing over the raspberries and not getting anywhere. I looked at other peoples' raspberry beds with wonder and envy. The funny thing about raspberries is they're almost literally weeds. They will send out runners and propagate all over the place if allowed. They grow wild (thought admittedly not very productive) at the drop of a hat. Yet getting them established in the garden was more challenging than I thought. What ended up working was raised beds and deer protection. And now, oh my goodness, our raspberries are exploding.


The branches were so heavy with fruit they were leaning over, and we despaired of picking everything.


We managed about an hour's solid picking before the hot sun drove us back inside.


We weren't the only ones picking fruit.



After an hour, we came away with about two gallons of raspberries. (We opted to user more bowls rather than filling fewer bowls to capacity so the berries wouldn't get crushed.)


Once they were picked over, these filled four cookie sheets to capacity.


I put the cookie sheets into the freezer. Once the berries are frozen, I'll bag them up and store them frozen. I've made raspberry jam in the past, but the truth is none of us are big jam-eaters, so I prefer to keep the raspberries frozen. That way I can use them in a variety of desserts instead.

This was just the first pick. The way it's looking, we might end up with fifteen or twenty gallons of raspberries in the freezer. God bless summer's bounty!

9 comments:

  1. They look delicious! How are the blueberries that you started doing?

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    Replies
    1. They're loaded with berries but not ripe yet. I expect they'll be ready to pick toward the end of July.

      - Patrice

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  2. How old are your berry bushes? They look fantastic.

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    Replies
    1. They're three years old. See this post:
      http://www.rural-revolution.com/2011/06/planting-raspberries.html

      - Patrice

      Delete
  3. Hello Lewis family!
    We have blueberry bushes filled, and have for many years. My dear husband had a wonderful idea to make picking easier. We take a plastic gallon jug, cut a wide hole leaving the handle intact and strap to our belt at waist level, leaving both hands free to "rake" in the berries. This way one hand can hold a branch while the other picks,picks and picks. They can also be used for slow drip irrigation with a small pin hole in the bottom to water individual plants. He's so smart! Is there any wonder why I love him! Absolutely not!

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  4. Raspberry Jam made from frozen berries is just as good as jam made with fresh berries. I like to do it this way because I am too busy in the summer to make jam. I can make it in the winter when that taste of summer on a scone is so wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. when I type in my search engine for rural revolution it came up as a debt consolidator website.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Patrice, I read your Blog every day. I love it and have followed for quite a while. Today I COULD NOT log on normally on my computer. Had been trying for hours! Got on here through Enola Gay's Blog. Just wondering if you know there is a BIG gray nothing with rural-revolution.com and only a Privacy Policy on it when one clicks onto Rural Revolution thru Google. I haven't had any trouble with other websites.
    Vera

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  7. Patrice, You don't have to Publish my comments. I don't have your email address any longer either. Have used it two or three times but through a glitch I lost several email addresses. It's just that this is the only way I have to contact you. Love you and your family! And your photos! And your recipes! And your WND columns! And all the choices on the side bar to learn from.
    Vera, Central Texas

    ReplyDelete