Friday, July 23, 2010

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:

35 comments:

  1. Oh, *yumm*...lucky you have so many. We only get a few handfuls. Enjoy! Love fresh jam :)

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  2. Luckeeeee (said like Napoleon Dynamite).
    I know it gets a little old, picking berries, but they are beautiful.

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  3. I made jam last night. Raspberry is our favorite.

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  4. Thats a lot of berries!! And what? A chair? I dont remember having a chair when I was there picking berries...:-)
    Im glad that you have such a nice, cool place to store all those berries. That works out really well for you. (And for me, when I come to visit.) But let me just say that yes, I do know that the temperature down there doesnt get much higher than what that thermometer reads....:-)
    But wait, does that last picture mean that Im supposed to be there in a couple days??? :-)

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  5. WOW, that's a lot of raspberries....I love raspberries, they are my favourite.

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  6. I envy you...my little monster (children) eat them as fast as they ripen. The are permanently stained red and blue this time of year!

    Have fun making jam...Kim

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  7. Baby milking cow :D I wish we could grow raspberry's just too hot here. Though they do grown them in the hills around Mum
    LiBBiE

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  8. Oy. We had raspberries ... until the deer ate all the tops off them where the blooms were. Now all we have are funny looking stalks. I don't understand it either. The goatmother never let ME have any of those raspberry bushes.

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  9. oh, to have a problem like this! is there such a thing as too many raspberries? I think not.

    You could also freeze them on the sheets...

    I have my first year raspberries just starting to fruit, so won't have this kind of glut for a few years yet. In the meantime, I thing I have verticulum wilt, which I need to deal with.

    Enjoy the glut!

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  10. Wow! That's a LOT of raspberries. I can't wait until mine start producing more. Of course, we just planted them (some last summer, some this spring) so they're still little and still spreading. I think we got a handful of berries off of them. But next year....
    Judy

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  11. Why are you picking with your left hand?....cause you have a camera permanently attached to your right!!! Great scott!! Thats a lot of berries! I'm picking blueberries galore! Love it...just have to learn to preserve! DUH!

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  12. I could totally dive face first into that big bowl of fresh raspberries in your pictures! Love them. Can't grow them successfully here. At least not yet. You are blessed with berries. (Sounds like a good name for a blog or a book: "Blessed with Berries". Ha!)

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  13. how awesome! yummy yummy for sure. and I have to say.....I had fun trying to figure out what else you had in your pantry. The nesquick jumped out as well as the mac n cheese......and also the fact that you are incredibly organized.....and oh......did I mention how yummy the berries look as well?

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  14. Now thats what I'm talkin about..nice fresh jam, hot out of the oven crusty bread..save some for me kay?

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  15. I hope mine do as good as yours, they are just starts this year. You are so lucky, raspberries are outrageous at the stores....can't tell you the last time(years) i have bought some.

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  16. Although my raspberry picking season is over here, I have never had such a harvest before. I made 4 runs of jam, have 6 gallons in the freezer, gave to family/friends and sold enough to buy myself a Kindle!

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  17. nice! i planted my bushes too far from the main house and the birds get to them before i do. same with my blueberries.

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  18. What big, beautiful raspberries! We've had so little rain this year that the majority of our raspberries dried up on the vine :( But we are getting a lot of dewberries. I just love berries! I bet your raspberry jam is going to be very yummy.

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  19. Over 6 lbs?!?!? Wow! So jealous!

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  20. Holy Doodle. That's a lot of raspberries. I confess, I can only tolerate a very few raspberries. I grew up on them and it was raspberry everything! My brother won't eat them at all now. *smile* Enjoy your bounty!

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  21. Aaah, I'm jealous. We tried to put them in last year but the goats knocked down the fencing and ate them.

    We bought stronger fencing but haven't had the time so we will try again next year.

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  22. Boy oh boy, you'll have lots of raspberry jam. Beautiful berries, and they are so much more fragile than blackberries. Have you ever frozen them then made your jam at the end of the season?

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  23. Last year we had more raspberries than we could have possibly used. This year we were on track for the same until the goats discovered that they loved the taste of the leaves!

    We were able to harvest a few, but not enough to do anything other than eat them outright.

    Do Reggie and Pete like them?

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  24. I just discovered your blog and absolutely love it!

    Over six pounds of raspberries in one setting? WOW! Will you be selling the jam? ;-)

    I've used those fly traps in the past and finally quit because I just couldn't bare the stench. Plus, my (now ex) husband pointed out that they were probably attracting flies from miles away.

    I would like to post a link to your blog on mine, if that's OK with you. It'll make it easier for me to visit yours regularly plus share you with my readers. Would you be OK with that?

    Looking forward to "getting to know you"...

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  25. Love raspberries. I have only a few plants. Hope to have as many as you do some day.

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  26. What a beautiful harvest! And I like that wine cabinet in your pantry. Nice to know when I come to visit there won't be a shortage of wine...OR raspberry jam!

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  27. Holy moly. I just know I'd feel like I was in heaven at your place right about now. :)

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  28. Hello -- I know I'm a bit late with this comment, but had to tell you how it reminds me of my childhood garden and all the berries we picked and canned. You have such a great setup there with a cool place for storage. Looking forward to seeing all those cans!--Inger

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  29. oooo, so jealous of all the berries!! YUM!
    We used to pick all sorts of raspberries and wild blackberries in WA, so lovely. Never made jam out of them...but they made a very tasty wine! :)

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  30. oh my I am so jealous! Raspberries and tons of them growing right there where you live! Oh my...

    Raspberries do not do well where I live. But I have hopes for a few berries I am planting! We will see!

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  31. my goats ate all the blackberries, and the raspberries. Next time I will do a better job of planning where to place the plants, as in away from their bottomless-pit-mouths.

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  32. I had only a few raspberries this year! yours were fantastic... just caught back up with your blog after AGES
    regards
    John in North Wales

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  33. Wow! Jealous, I wish we had more raspberries!

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