Kind of like milking a cow

First I assess how much I've got:

Sticking my head in among the canes, I realize I'm going to be here for a while and should probably pull up a chair:

With my bottom now comfortably in a chair and the bucket at my feet, I start picking:

I pick predominantly with my left hand. I don't know why since I'm right-handed:

Very quickly, one bucket becomes two:

And two buckets ultimately become 6.19 pounds of raspberries:

Jam is in these beauties' future:

One downside to ripe raspberries is they don't keep long off the vine. Like milk from a cow, it's important to keep these berries cool until I'm ready to use them:

Unlike milk, though, I don't refrigerate them. Refrigeration seems to dehydrate raspberries and make them limp and dry. To keep them fresh and in tact until I make jam the next day, I spread them in single layers on cookie sheets and place them in my downstairs pantry:

The temperature here never gets much above 60 degrees:

The berries are coming on so quickly now. In just a couple days, I'll be out here again, feeling like I'm milking another cow: