The Black Raspberry

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Until this summer, I had actually never heard of the Black Raspberry. It turns out that many of the wild berries I had presumed were Blackberries were in fact Black Raspberries.

These berries mature in early July and can usually be picked for a period of 3 weeks. With this short window of opportunity we decided to gather as much as we could.

Wild Black Raspberries

Most of the berries were relatively small although a few strands produced some rather large specimens. The berries are sweeter and milder than the standard raspberry and produce an excellent jam.

It turns out that everything we picked or preserved was rapidly sold. It really does seem to be a favourite and is certainly not readily available. Perhaps recent research in the berry's properties have aided in their gaining popularity. Researchers have been studying the Black Raspberry in the treatment and prevention of certain cancers (in particular esophageal, colon and skin).

As such, we've decided that come the fall, we will attempt to transplant and replicate some of these wild varieties in order to grow them and nurture them to their larger size.

This week we've continued to harvest and process all of our berries (in particular the Purple Raspberry). Our regular mode of operation is to pick in the morning, sell them fresh in our store during the day, and process all unsold berries in the evening (we have been producing our own jams, dehydrated berries and even freezing them for future use).

Our store shelf is slowly filling with berry products

Since our jams are made in small batches with minimal sugar, we actually have a difficult time keeping up with demand.

Of course our jam and berries also find their way into Chef's kitchen for the Tea Room operation. One of the things he has been working on is a rum pot.

This is a great idea that anyone can start this time of year. The best way to begin is by combining equal weights of rum, sugar and berries....any berries. We started with strawberries. Over time you simply add berries to the pot as you find them.

By the end of the process (around Christmas time), you end up with a great fruit sauce that is wonderful over ice cream or sponge cake.

Since most of our new plants (Red Gooseberries, Black and Red Currants) are fruiting...but not sufficiently to harvest, we have been adding the berries to our rum pot.

Chef's rum pot.

I have not reported on this for a while, but we are also continuing with our wine/mead making experiments. With the Purple Raspberries producing well, this week was a milestone in our first production of a fruit wine.

We used a Pyment to start (a Mead made with grape juice). Now that it has been fermenting for 4 weeks, we added a large volume (1 to 1) of Purple Raspberries to start our first Raspberry Melomel or fruit wine. We should be able to report on some results in another four weeks.

Adding fresh raspberries to pyment in order to produce our first fruit wine

Now that the Juneberry season is coming to an end, we decided to take the opportunity to start clearing the plants we discovered this Spring. We know there are at least two rows but most of the trees were obstructed with  Wild Roses, Wild Grapes, young Black Locust trees, and to make things worse: netting.

In this mess reside some productive Juneberry trees

It seems that at one time, a nylon net was placed atop these small trees to prevent birds from eating the fruits. The result is that this mesh has become more of a death trap for birds and small animals while getting completely entangled in the branches of the bush and the weeds that surround it.

The nylon mesh adding to the mess

After a couple of days of seriously hard work, we eventually began to uncover what we knew was there: two beautiful rows of productive Juneberry plants. The only thing we left among the Juneberries were a few mature Tulip Trees.

Tristan working on the finishing touches to our Juneberry rows.

With the rows clear, next year we suspect we may be harvesting ten times what we were able to pick this Summer.

Our foraging also never ends. This week, we discovered another pervasive "weed" which is actually a major food crop in India: Bathua. More commonly known here as Pigweed or more appetizingly Lambsquarters, this is a very edible plant which can be processed pretty much like any other leafy green such as Spinach.

Lambsquarters: a delicious edible "weed"

Recipes abound on the Internet for this plant. What is particularly interesting though is its long standing history as a crop in most parts of the world, including the Americas. Its grains are actually a close relation to Quinoa and rich in protein, making it a very versatile source of food.

In the vegetable garden, things continue to progress. This week it was a real treat to begin harvesting our Zucchinis or Courgettes. The variety we planted was the Cocozelle Zucchini.

Our first Zucchini harvest.

Never having been a big fan of Zucchini, I was shocked when we tried this freshly picked summer squash. Simply raw, it was outstanding. Chef has now been using these with his Fettucini special.

The other part of our harvest has been our pickling cucumbers. Chef has started a batch of pickles using a lactofermentation process (ie. no vinegar). As we gather small cucumbers, he has been adding to his batch and already they are starting to ferment and taste wonderful.

Our lactofermented pickles are progressing well

Finally this week, we have an important announcement. Candice (our oldest daughter) will also be marrying next year to Jordan, a young talented lawyer with a passion for tractors (what more could we ask for!). This means two weddings for the family in 2014. 

Jordan with the Bush Hog