At the Feet of the Raspberry Goddess

Raspberries are one of my favorite crops. They are delicious, super healthy like all berries, expensive to buy and so perishable that you can never find good fresh ones in the store even if money were no object. Worshipping at the feet of the Raspberry Goddess is what my friend Gail calls it. Such a lovely phrase. It is exactly what I have been doing.

They are almost finished now, but for the last 3 weeks no matter what my intentions are when I go to the top garden, I end up picking raspberries. The husband did a few stints when the glut was at its peak. The help was much appreciated, but here's the rub: for him it is a chore. For me it is pure joy.

Alas, we are looking at jungle here. Originally the raspberry rows were at right angle to the main veg beds. But they never quite got enough water, and I wanted a grape in that spot. So I started a long row alongside the veg beds, well-manured and mulched, at the outer edge of the garden. It is producing well.

Next thing you know the garden area gets expanded during project deer fence, so the raspberries are no longer at the edge. The grape dies, again. I can't grow the damn things for love or money, but that is another blog. Volunteer raspberries are reclaiming their former home and they are welcome to it. The plan now is to create more support structures at right angle to the veg beds and put more
raspberries there. We will just have to drag the hose out now and then. Raspberries, if mulched well, don't need a lot of extra watering. With this plan in mind, the suckers that wandered away from the main row were allowed to remain until they can be dug up.

The result is JUNGLE! And I have not had a chance to start work on that project yet. I can't believe it's August.....

We have been eating them with yogurt as breakfast for weeks now, given quarts away, gobbled them by the handful while working in the garden, and there are 2 of these boxes in the freezer.