This is shaping up to be a great berry year. We’re often amused that in our work toward greater self sufficiency, we never produced enough of a staple (potatoes, corn) for our family’s consumption in a year. But we’ll wolf down hundreds of dollars of berries in one day. We seem to have succeeded at overproduction only with luxury foods like blueberries, raspberries and maple syrup. It’s nice really but one wonders about priorities.
This season is notable in that we have a great read of what the plants are doing, and have managed to stay on top of them. We’ve been good a picking a little every day, a little before ripe, at good times of the day. The chaos of previous years along with our lesser experience then didn’t allow for the slow and steady approach coupled with good calls. One of the improvements is that we are no longer trying to process the quantities before they rot. Now we simply freeze it all until Fall when a day long fire can be used for 1 big canning session. Making preserves in the Summer in small batches was far from ideal.
We’ve been getting 1 big bowl per day for the past couple of weeks, that’s what’s left for the freezer after we all splurged.
When picking raspberries, it helps to be low to the ground. The best picking is when we crawl through the bushes.
The blueberries are on a whole other level.
Leave a Comment