First fruits.
Let the record show this is the first raspberry of summer. I hope the photo is sharp enough, because I can’t take another one; the goal was to document the first ripe fruit, and I already ate it. The total take was just a half-dozen or so, but it’s only the beginning. Raspberries in my cereal! Raspberries for breakfast! Raspberry pie! Couldn’t be happier.
To tell the truth, I enjoy the harvest as much as the eating. Picking raspberries is an exercise in patience, not one of my top-tier traits. You can’t pick too fast or you’ll drop the fruit. You can’t tromp into the bed with guns blazing or you’ll trample the canes. You can’t pinch off berries that aren’t really ready to be picked; you’ll either squash them or drop them, or both. It takes forever to get a bowlful, and that’s okay with me. During berry-picking season, the time I spend with the raspberries is probably the sanest part of my day.
It was a little disconcerting to have to throw two of the berries back to the birds because of moldy spots. Very few berries showed mold last year, but we’ve had an unusually wet spring and summer this year. So maybe this crop will need more picking-over than usual. But that’s okay. Any and all extra effort is absolutely worth the reward.
Posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 5:32 pm. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Sue says:
I used to have a blackberry patch but it was so aggressively vicious I removed it. Now I just have a couple of volunteers that I keep cut low and get maybe a handful of berries each year. My peaches look good; the three that will be left after the squirrels finish with them should be good. I never get enough currants for jelly so a friend who likes them raw comes and picks out the bushes. As usual I probably won’t know what to do with all the grapes next September.
Home fruit-growing is fun as long as you don’t expect anything – that way when something survives to maturity it’s always a nice surprise.
Posted at June 23rd, 2010 at 10:45 am
tt says:
Sue, i love blackberries even more than raspberries, but I hear you—they can be aggressive. I just had our lawn guys spray the raspberry canes that are spreading to the yard. From a well-confined raised bed, no less. At least the fruit is emininently edible, which is more than I can say for the dreck that falls from our two apple trees. And it gives the wildlife something to munch on.
Speaking of which, one of our apples is severely crowding an arborvitae, and one of them must go. An arborist we consulted on some other, more pressing matters suggested getting rid of the apple because the arborvitae sucks up more water, and they’re in a pretty swampy part of the yard. I’m devastated by the idea of losing this apple tree. Anybody have ideas for something I could plant in its place that would be prettier than arbovitaes and still suck up moisture? Would a willow be safe? Our sump and one gutter both drain into this area, and I don’t want to muck up the pipes.
Posted at June 23rd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Vickie says:
my friend…
stay far far away from the darn willow…messy, messy, and more messy….
Posted at June 27th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Milly says:
I am waiting for my berries to ripe and then …. cereal for breakfast. They will be the first time for me.
Posted at October 23rd, 2011 at 6:22 am