A few weeks ago our raspberry bushes were ready for picking. We picked and we picked…and we are still picking. We thought when we were away we would miss a lot of berries, which is something I guess we should think about. When you plant your own food, you better be home to harvest it and use it, right?!
Early spring 2009, we planted 10 raspberry plants. We had no idea just how many raspberries we would get. Everyday we harvest we get somewhere between two to five POUNDS of raspberries! It’s kinda crazy, but who can have too many berries?
I have my trusty little berry helper, although, as you can imagine, most of the berries he picks he eats right away, but that’s okay. It’s nice to have him by my side.
For right now we pick some for eating that day, but everything else goes straight from the bush to the freezer. I am stock piling and hope to get to making a whole lot of jam and various other goodies later this week.
I layer the berries in a single row in a shallow bowl, cake pan, or anything really, and stack them in the freezer. Then, after they have fully frozen, I seal them up in a very large air tight freezer bag. I’m so sure that it would be best to make jam, or anything, with fresh berries, but I am having a hard time keeping up this year and this is the best way I can figure to do it without spoiling anything.
I’m thinking mango-raspberry jam, blueberry-raspberry-blackberry jam, and of course some plain old just raspberry jam too. Do you have any favorites?
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