Here’s the harvest from one 5o foot row today!  These guys are also headed to the freezer.  We freeze them on cookie sheets and then in bag, so it’s easy to use how many you want at the time.

one year ago…”Pie Filling”

At the end of the season, they look like this.

A few swaths of the lawnmower and they look like this! No pruning out every other cane like is necessary for the summer raspberries.

one year ago…”Hog Barn Renovation Milestone”

First heat some water and sugar for the liquid to a boil – add sugar to taste.  Heat up canning kettle to boiling.  Soften up the canning lids by getting water to nearly boiling and putting lids in and then take off the heat.

Put berries directly in jars.

Fill to within a half inch of the top of the jar with the boiling sugar water mix.

Wipe the rim of the jars dry, put on lids, hand tighten rings, and put in boiling water bath for 20 minutes, making sure an inch of water is above the jars.  It’s a quick and easy way to put up food for later.

one year ago…”Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program”

Some fun with a camera setting that just detects one color.

Wild blueberries in full color. Picking blueberries is rather relaxing and it’s a great excuse to get out and tromp around the woods, sphagnum bogs, and powerlines.  There’s a fine line between getting lost and not knowing exactly where you are!  I also managed to scare up a covey of young ruffed grouse.

Blueberries collected for human consumption!  We had blueberries on pancakes, blueberries in mixed fruit salad, and Linda made a blueberry pie as well.

Of course, we couldn’t go a whole week without picking and preserving some food!  In addition to the berries we ate fresh and froze, we canned over 30 jars of these delectable little morsels!

one year ago…”Overnight in the BWCA in the Rain”

Many of the blackberry vines were bent over and cracked.  In some ways it greatly simplified pruning – just getting rid of the damaged vines accounted for much of the pruning.  The patch should survive the damage just fine, however.

The white pine Christmas trees are another story.  I’d say at least half of the trees were damaged beyond repair.  Here’s as example of the type of damage.  The Canaan Firs held up much better, probably due to their nature and the fact they were a couple of years ahead in growth to the white pines.

one year ago…”Willows Emerge”

The flavor isn’t quite as good (to my taste buds) as the red berries – not quite as strong as the reds.  However, I think this winter we’ll make a “raspberry lovers” gift box with red raspberry jam, golden raspberry jam, and raspberry jelly.

one year ago…”Apple Peeling, 2008 Style”

These are the golden raspberries – we only have about 15 foot row of these and that is enough.  They are not quite as tasty as the red and seem slightly more susceptible to fungus.  They do however offer a beautiful contrast in the box mixed with the reds.

The old standby fall raspberry variety – Heritage.

one year ago…”Honey Extraction”

This photo show berries cut in half lengthwise and put cut side down.

This tray shows sliced strawberries.

This tray was sliced lengthwise and put on the tray uncut side down.

Finally, whole berrries put on the tray.

As for results, the easiest to take off the trays were the berries sliced lengthwise and put cut side up.  None of them were difficult to remove, but the lengthwise down were easiest.  Our dehydrator has the flexible sheets – it was easy to bend those – if you were using a rigid drying tray, it would take longer to get them off.  The whole berries took a long time to dry, even though they were all the small ones.  I’d cut them all next time.

The dried berries turned out better than I expected, taste-wise – so we’ll be doing more.

one year ago…”Emma at ISU Basketball Camp”

Look good?  It is!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #121″

So, I did the old trick of laying down some cardboard and old straw and punched holes it to plant the berries – with the mulch conserving moisture and keeping weeds down.

one year ago…”xxx”