It's a little like waiting for a lover to return from a long trip out to sea, (a feeling us fishwives find all too familiar!) It's a time filled with breathless excitement and more than a little aniexty. This year, my perfect day to pick raspberries was Saturday. What I assumed would be the busiest picking day of the week. Now I know that every year I feel this way and every year there is always plenty for everyone...it still doesn't help. I don't know what i would do without our annual stash of summer in a jar. It is also the wonderful by-product of living in a small town for so long that my family has had access to the most amazing and awesome patch of raspberries for a dozen years or more. That patch has given us many a small but bright spot in the middle of those cold dark winter mornings...after all who can be crabby after being presented with toasted bakery bread with that brilliant red smeared all over and glistening like a jewel! Lucky for me, on this day, there was not a soul around. The morning had rained some, but as we pulled down the driveway to my friend Jane's (the funny and generous keeper of the patch) the sun came out and blessed us with perfect picking weather!
When my kids were small, we had picking parties... the little ones would play for hours on the tire and buoy swing while I and the other moms chatted and picked. Now that the kids are older they can pick faster than me! This year, it was my friend Celeste and I. I was picking for jam and her berries provided for our evening refreshment...raspberry marguaritas!
...So, with 4 quarts of raspberries picked (with one left behind for our wonderful hostess) and a case of jam done and cooling...you can bet we were ready for a little refreshment.
And just in time for sunset!
A little local inside tip: people here guard their favorite picking locations very closely, if you don't have one (or haven't befriended someone who does) there is always Mossy Kilcher's Seaside Farms. Mossy has herself a little slice of heaven there on the bench above Kachemak Bay. She also rents cabins and runs a hostel along with a great pick your own raspberry patch...it is a lovely spot!
4 comments:
i miss this part of summer! send me a jar?
Cool! I've never seen a raspberry bush before! We have wild blackberries and blueberries here in the south. Don't believe we have raspberries.
What's that interesting thing growing, up in the very top right corner of the raspberry bush pic?
Raspberries, margaritas AND raspberry margaritas!?!? Damn, girl, I'll be on the next plane out!
Maya...the jam is in the mail, darlin!
Chefchides...these bushes are almost 6 feet high! The thing in the background is called Pushki and it looks a little like queen ann's lace on steriods...it gets very tall with huge leaves and stems, which carry a substance that if on your skin reacts in the sun like a 2nd degree burn...crazy bad, but beautiful!
Lorrie...get on up here...your beverage awaits!
Post a Comment