I absolutely adore seasonal fruit. I especially love putting a little extra money into purchasing it when it is in season, and then preserving it in different ways to enjoy all year long. Strawberry season is just behind us, and we did get to the patch twice this year to load up on those delicious berries. Fifty pounds of blueberries are on order, but the one I’ve had my eye on the most is the raspberries. We have been trying to get to the local raspberry patch for YEARS to pick berries. Four years ago I found a patch, and have been trying to get there ever since. We’ve either missed berry picking because we’ve been on vacation, or we waited too long- raspberries are very particular, and the picking season doesn’t last longer than two weeks.
So you can maybe understand how excited I was to check my Facebook feed last night and see that the patch was going to be open for the first time for picking this morning. We had a small window of opportunity to do so, but by golly, we were going! The kids and I got up extra early this morning to be there right when they opened. We were assigned our row, and set to work.
Let me tell you, raspberry picking is tedious business. The bushes are prickly, there are weeds and thistles throughout, and it takes a long time to pick a quantity of berries. We were there for just over an hour and managed to pick six and a half pounds. (To give you a frame of reference, we can pick forty pounds of strawberries in about 45 minutes.) But we had some, and were very excited about it.
What I wanted to do most with these raspberries was make a batch of jam. There is just nothing like homemade raspberry jam. Nothing! I figured that would take about half of our harvest, and I was spot on. It took just over 3 pounds of fresh raspberries to produce enough mashed berries for one batch of jam. I also have a scant 1 1/2 quarts of frozen berries already in the freezer, and the remainder will be enjoyed out of hand for a few days.
The jam is pure heaven. I had one small jar that didn’t have enough in it to seal it up, so we’ve already sampled. Summer in a jar. It was worth all the effort to get those raspberries. If we have time, and the patch is open, we may be returning Friday to do it all over again. We have a little more time available to us on Friday, so could maybe pick a bit more.
It was worth the wait.