Raspberry Avalanche!

 

This is my raspberry patch. 

Obviously not very big it is singularly, the most weed infested and neglected patch on the peninsula.  Admittedly, I did fertilize it and cut out dead canes in earlier this year.  

2025 has been a record harvest. Doggo and I picked raspberries (again) yesterday; freezing everything we didn’t scarf.

By my estimate I have more than 3+ gallons of these gems in the deep freeze.

I already have plenty of homemade jam in the bunker. I can certainly make more.   I can also add these to a smoothie and my Irish breakfast porridge.

Judging from a couple of my Face Book pals there is likely a raspberry pretzel torte in my future....

Personal Kermis

Any of you who have paid a visit know that my raspberry patch is nothing to write home about.  It’s small, full of weeds and grass and survives only slightly above benign neglect.  Two varieties of raspberry varietals were planted 20 years ago - the types lost to memory.

Nevertheless, every spring I cut most of the dead canes and give it a good drench of Jung Seed Company ‘raspberry food’ from a watering can.

Summer production was steady; this fall it has been excellent.  This patch is an overachiever.

The birds obviously get first dibs but Doggo and I pick every couple of days or so - eating as we go. These are really good on vanilla ice cream.  Anything we cannot eat in short order is frozen. I think I’m up to 1.5 gallons of frozen berries. 

There is most definitely raspberry jam in our future.   Terrific stocking stuffers and hostess gifts.  Most importantly, a barter currency.

Raining today - double batch of homemade garden salsa is on deck….. 

Hiding Spot

Sometimes it’s the smaller surprises that can make your day. 

At the bottom of the first photo is our raspberry patch.  It’s not very large and the variety(s) of raspberries planted there is lost to history. Consequently, it isn’t mown, it sometimes gets a pruning of dead canes and usually receives a fertilizer drench in the spring.  It persists marginally above neglect and below proper husbandry.   Anyway, I picked the first ripening berries before the birds got them all. Nice surprise. 

The second surprise was this nest deep in the middle of the brambles and the briars. 

I’d agree it’s a good location hidden amongst pickers and thorns…… 

Silver Lining From A Neglected Cloud

No pruning, weeding or fertilizing all of 2023.  We spent most of the year scratching our traveling itch.

 

Nevertheless, and despite the neglect, our forlorn raspberry patch produced a bumper crop of berries - most of which we froze. 

 

 

The rest we ate with breakfast cereal, vanilla ice cream or straight-up.  We learned the doggo loves them too.  The birds got their share when we weren't looking.

 

 

This weekend I converted all of the stash from the garage freezer into jam. 

 

 

21 half pint jars to be sure.

 

 

Lost the 22nd jar to a rare blowout in the canner. 

Tried it out on Sunday morning breakfast toast.  

 

Perfection!

In A Jam

Figuratively-speaking.

I finished-off the last of my imported Irish black currant jam today.

Fortunately I have been picking and freezing these red gems from our much-neglected tangle of something that used to resemble a proper raspberry patch.

There is homegrown, homemade, raspberry jam in my future....

Kermis Time of Year

Kermesse, or kermis, or kirmess, is a Dutch language term derived from 'kerk' (church) and 'mis' (mass) that became incorporated in French and English. Its origins are originally associated with the mass said on the anniversary of the founding of a church (or the parish) and in honor of the Patron Saint.  Such religious celebrations were regularly held in the Low Countries, in Central Europe and also in Northern France, and were accompanied by feasting, dancing, drinking and sports. 

The Dutch-American Village of Little Chute, Wisconsin, has celebrated Kermis annually since 1981 with a street festival. The Wallonian settlements in Door and Kewaunee Counties have celebrated Kermis with traditional Belgian dishes and events for as long as anyone can remember.  

Traditionally, Kermis around here stretched over several calendar weeks as each small settlement - Namur, Brussels, Rosiere, Little Sturgeon, Forestville, Lincoln, Duvall and Casco celebrated the harvest and the life-giving bounty of food.  

I'm not of Dutch or Belgian descent - but we're celebrating our own Kermis here with a steady harvest from the garden including raspberries!

Our raspberry patch is roughly equivalent to the square footage of our master bath.  It is not huge.  Nevertheless, after cleaning-out the dead canes in early spring and giving it a generous drench of 'Raspberry Food' (fertilizer formula from Jung Seed) it has returned to proper productivity.

It is presently going thru it's second flush of ripe berries and the birds don't get them all.  There have been plenty to incorporate in hand pies, crepes, salads and with ice cream.  

 

This past weekend I emptied the freezer of the frozen surplus and made a batch of homemade jam.

Raspberry jam is an annual event and while the 2021 batch is a wee bit 'loose' in texture the tart sweetness is dang good.

Sixteen half-pints of shelf-stable homegrown goodness.  

Vive la confiture de framboise rouge!  

 

Recipe here.

 

 

Confiture de Framboise Rouge

It has been a good year for raspberries.  

The berry patch adjacent to the garden has been on the decline and is likely to be sentenced to death and removal next year.  On the other hand the opposite berry patch on the western edge of the yard has had a stellar year.  An altogether excellent result considering the benign neglect.

Composed of a mixture of ever-bearing and ordinary raspberry plants we enjoyed a steady yet small continuous harvest augmented with a bumper summer and autumn harvest.  

Fresh, homegrown berries are a real treat considering the exorbitant prices for fresh berries you'll find in the grocery.  Grown in Peru - or some other far-flung location - they are an improvement in our standard of dietary living but at $3.74 for a half-pint they are indeed a luxury.  Stepping outside to fetch a bowl of berries for breakfast oatmeal or yogurt, a dish of ice cream or nestled in a crepe is backyard homesteading at its finest. 

Those berries not picked and eaten immediately or scavenged by the birds were cleaned, flash-frozen and stored in the garage freezer.  Two big storage bags of them.  With berry picking over for the season I fetched half of the frozen berry bonanza - amounting to a heaping eight cups of fruit goodness.  

Homemade raspberry jam was on the agenda.

Ingredients

8 - Cups of fresh or frozen red raspberries

2 - T of lemon juice  

7 - Cups of cane sugar

1 - Pouch of SURE-JELL CERTO® Premium Liquid Fruit Pectin
 
A bunch of sterilized half-pint jars with matching lids and bands

Directions

Thaw the frozen berries in a large colander in your sink.   

Move them to a pot and slowly raise the heat on them.  As they begin to soften add the lemon juice and using a potato masher pulverize and smash them into a soupy mixture.

Add the sugar and raise the heat to high - stirring constantly.  Bring the mixture to a rolling boil.  Stir-in the liquid pectin and return to a rolling boil for one minute.  

Remove the pot from the heat and using a spoon remove any foam from the surface.

Ladle immediately into hot, sterilized jars leaving about a quarter inch of head space.  Wipe anything from the glass rim or threads, top with a lid and band and screw it down tight.  Move the filled jars to a canner and pasteurize in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.

Remove to cool and when the lids ‘pop’ your jars of jam are properly sealed.  If a lid springs-back refrigerate and use immediately.

Properly sealed jars can be stored in a cool dark place for a couple of years.  Although that would be a low probability event around here. 

This jam is pretty darn good stuff.  Remarkably, it is pleasingly tart considering all of the sugar in the recipe.  It’s also easy-enough for a kitchen novice to perform admirably.   

Yield is 10-12 half-pint jars.

Pro Tip - Liquid pectin is added after the ingredients are brought to a boil. 

 *A word about the jars and lids.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - heat a Pyrex measuring cup of water to a boil in the microwave and drop the lids in the hot water to sanitize them.  Fish them out with a tongs.

Himbeeren

This is what a gallon of frozen raspberries looks like.

And by the time you are reading this there will likely be another half-gallon picked.

The raspberry patch is having a terrific year. A regular raspberry avalanche.  We've been eating them at every opportunity and freezing the balance.

If I had to hazard a guess there is homemade jam in my future.

And when I bake biscuits in February while Old Man Winter is throwing sleet at my window there is going to be summer's harvest to enjoy.....

Confiture de Framboise Rouge

click on the images for a closer look

It has been a good year for raspberries.  When dabbling-about in the yard or the garden it has been a simple pleasure to snack on a handful of fresh berries picked directly from the cane.  Berries on ice cream, berries on yogurt, berries in crepes and raspberry pastries.  At long last we made homemade jam from the homegrown red raspberries Jill has been cultivating.  It started with a bumper crop of berries that she has been hoarding in the beer fridge and I augmented it with frozen ones picked earlier.  
     
Ingredients

6 – Cups of fresh or frozen red raspberries

1 – Package of SURE-JELL Premium Fruit Pectin

7 – Cups of cane sugar

A bunch of sterilized half-pint jars with matching lids and bands

Begin by soaking your berries in cold tap water to rinse-off any debris or bugs.  Drain on a large cookie sheet lined with paper towels in the fridge.  Thaw any frozen berries.  In all we had slightly less than six packed cups of fresh and frozen berries.  Put your berries in a pot and using a potato masher pulverize and smash them into a soupy mixture.

Stir in one package of SURE-JELL Premium Fruit Pectin and bring to a rolling boil (a boil that doesn’t stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.  Add the sugar to the fruit mixture and return to a rolling boil over high heat.  Boil exactly one minute while stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and skim-off any foam with a spoon.  





Ladle immediately into the prepared jars leaving about a quarter inch of headspace.  Wipe the jar rims and threads and add the lids and bands finger tight.  Process for 10-15 minutes in a boiling water bath in your canner. 

Remove to cool and when the lids ‘pop’ your jars of jam are properly sealed.  If a lid springs-back refrigerate and use immediately.

Properly sealed jars can be stored in a cool dark place for up to a year or more.  Although that would be a low probability event around here.   This jam is pretty darn good stuff.  Remarkably, it is pleasingly tart considering all of the sugar in the recipe.  It’s also easy-enough for a kitchen novice to perform admirably.  Yield is 10 half-pint jars.

*A word about the jars and lids.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - heat a Pyrex measuring cup of water to a boil in the microwave and drop the lids in the hot water to sanitize them.  Fish them out with a tongs.

Seasonal Treat

The raspberry patch is turning out a regular stream of fruit.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.

Jill picked these











And made a half-dozen of these cream cheese and raspberry-filled pastries...

I ate two for breakfast today.....

Berry Patch

Picked more....

If we got serious and actually maintained the raspberry patch the pickings would be good.

Dessert

Raspberry patch is beginning to shift into overdrive.  One half of today's harvest on vanilla ice cream.  

Yummy....

 

Raspberry Avalanche!

Yield from yesterday's picking of The Frau's raspberry patch = ten cups of frozen delights.

 click to enlarge

Bring-on the vanilla ice cream!