Recently I made a pilgrimage to go raspberry picking. I used to go berry picking all the time when I was a kid and the whole experience is still very comforting. The sights and sounds and smells of a farm and fields of crops... ahhh. Unfortunately, the picking wasn't all that great due to my very late in the season visit. Upon arrival to the U-pick field, I asked the attendant sitting under the shade of a tent what her recommendations were as far as picking locations. She pointed out a few rows and explained that as it was the end of the season and that I would 'really have to look.' Most of the unpicked berries were already rotting on the bushes, but I managed to pick 8 quarts by being creative with the berry hunting. The strategic method employed was mostly by picking from areas of the bushes in which many people are not inclined search if they are not willing to bend over or get scratched a little. I hunted for the ruby gems in the more 'innconvenient locations', such as low the the ground and on your hands and knees kind of picking as well as finding those hidden inside the bush which involved pushing aside the snagging brambles.
Barns, farm animals and country stores! Love it!
After about two hours of picking I had lots of berries, which were immediately turned into homemade jam as soon as I got home. Mmm mmm. Compared to strawberry jam, I feel that raspberry jam has a lot less prep work involved- with strawberries you have to tediously remove all the stems. With strawberries, though, the fruit is bigger and essentially you have less work with the harvesting time. Either way raspberry jam happens to be my personal favorite flavor-wise anyway, so there is a little bias. With all the deliciousness aside, you can't go wrong with a food product that you can easily make yourself and which contains literally three ingredients: fruit, sugar, pectin- that's it!
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