Raspberry Harvest

 
It's a banner year for raspberries. I wish I knew what makes one year a bust and the next a blowout. We're picking more in a day this year than we did in the entire season last year. Perhaps it was the relatively cool, wet spring. All the plants seem to have a profusion of flowers. Perhaps it's a good year for pollinators. Although I've been hearing a lot about colony collapse affecting honey bees, in my garden there were some along with many bumble bees and tiny varieties. They were buzzing busily around the peas, the apple tree, the ornamental flowers, and the raspberries. But even if I knew the answer, many of these things are not under my control.

All I can do is get out there and pick before the birds, bugs and other creatures take too many. The past few days I've been heading out multiple times: at dawn before the birds get busy, in the mid-afternoon when it appears the berries are ripening before my very eyes, and sometimes right before dinner to put a few berries on the our plates. Each time some of the most perfect berries go into the freezer so we'll be able to put them in smoothies and baking long after the plants stop producing. Perhaps I'll try making some jam.

Sometimes I have a helper.

She has an interesting old manicure.

I would have taken a photo of my breakfast: oatmeal pancakes topped with raspberries, blueberries and banana, but it looked so delicious that I had to eat it right away.