Black Raspberries Everywhere!!!!

What to do with so many raspberries?

So we have so many ideas but no real knowledge on how to deal with these berries!!!!

They are Black Raspberries and they are delicious.

When we first started to come to Dream Land (as our little 4 year old homie calls it), I had noticed these big patches of what looked to be berry bushes. I am now very happy we never cut them down for anything, these little berries are so good... but what are we going to do with this abundance???

Before spring started I had roughly cut a path through one of the larger patch of berries, so we could have access to more fruit. By now, this path has been well overgrown but I managed to find it again except there seemed to be many more new berry growth... and I can't bring myself to cutting any of it down, especially when I want to take in all 4 seasons before developing the property. It's a permaculture thing I heard a while back that stuck with me:

Before a permaculture design can be properly planned, one should observe the land in question for at least one year. To see nature run it's course durring all the seasons will give you an advantage for great design.

Yesterday at a rest stop off the high way, I saw a farmstand selling these same berries at almost $10 a handful! I have to say, I was kind of excited to see how expensive they could be... made me think about a small cash stream for the Homestead. We can have a farm stand by the road perhaps!

I always think about making fruit preserves, but I have close to no experience making that!

Besides selling fruit baskets and making preserves, I'm not sure what else to do... Natural dye maybe?

Thus far all we have done with our berries is share with friends and family! We brought about a half a pound to Liberty Festival. People were super happy about it and so were we!

There's nothing wrong with giving the stuff away and sharing it, but what do we do when people start getting tired of it? Oh here they come, I bet they have more berries... AGAIN!