Homegrown Raspberries!

Red Raspberries

Three years ago, I labored heavily when digging ditches for our four 100-foot rows that had been designated for Black, Golden & Red Raspberries, as well as Blackberries. If you've ever planted berries, you know to not expect much fruit the first couple years, since the plants need to mature a bit and use their energy to set their foundation. The one-year old plants did produce some fruit, but just enough to keep Zuben busy for 20 minutes each day, foraging for his treasure, with which he would typically eat all of before telling us what he'd been doing. (The Golden Raspberries are usually all for him.) When the plants produce fruit during the year, they're simultaneously jutting out new runners that will pop up the following year to yield the next year's berries, so each winter, the old producers are whacked off for optimal health and production.

Golden Raspberries

 Now in our third year, we are LOADED with berries! Our Black Raspberries came first mid-June, yielding about 8 or 10 pounds within a few week time frame, with the Red and Golden bearing ripened fruits near the beginning of July, and the Blackberries peaking aroun the same time. The Red and Golden Raspberries have never been as plentiful as the others, but having 3.5 people in our household, we were quite fine with the "half-person" consuming most of them, and allowing the other three people to have a handful every other day.

 
 BUT

This summer has been a bit weird in the weather department, with a mostly arid July and a very wet start to August, leaving our Raspberry plants quite confused. The Golden and Red Raspberries are almost finished with their second flowering of the season! As a novice to the Berry farmer business, I didn't know they would produce fruit twice in one year. So, more recipe hunts! :-)

I made this delicious and simple Raspberry Coffee Cake with a few modifications, and I do believe the recipe will be finding a home within my cookbook. YUM