Not a Bronx cheer

The pleasant surprise at the blueberry farm was that they had planted a whole field of raspberries. After picking two whole buckets of blueberries, Ken and I borrowed a container from our friend K. and picked some raspberries. I probably ate as many as I picked. Shame on me.

Framboises. Don't they look amazingly good?

Along the way we met a British woman who lives nearby. She recognized us from our blogs and introduced herself. We felt a little like celebrities. Christine was very nice and we enjoyed talking with her. The blogging thing is abstract on a day-to-day basis. You write stuff and publish pictures, but when you actually meet someone who reads it regularly, it becomes something else. Very nice.

Picking raspberries in the morning sun. It was not at all hot out. Very pleasant.

We ate half the raspberries while they were fresh. Yummy. Then I froze the remaining half. We'll use those to make frozen yogurt or ice cream in the coming weeks. And I have to say, they are delicious! We will certainly go back next year for more.

Raspberries in front, blueberries behind, then a big stand of conifers.

Berry blue

On Tuesday, Ken and I and our friend K. drove up to the local myrtille (blueberry) farm for a morning of pick-your-own fun. I did this last year with great success (we're just now finishing the berries I froze last July), so I was looking forward to more of the same. I was not disappointed.

The morning was bright and sunny and cool. The pickin' was easy!

The berries were ripe and plentiful and picking them off the bushes was pretty easy. Ken and I filled up our buckets with more than eight kilograms of berries, over seventeen pounds! Today I will wash them, pick the stems out, and freeze most of them in zip-top bags for use in the coming year. Of course, we plan to eat some fresh ones, too.

Ripe berries were abundant; we timed our visit just right.

A new feature at the farm this year was section of pick-your-own framboises (raspberries). Wow. The bushes were heavy with plump and juicy fruit and we picked 800 grams, nearly two pounds. I think we ate half for dessert yesterday and the rest went into the freezer for making ice cream or frozen yogurt in the days to come. I'll post photos of the raspberries soon.