Red Berry Roaming, Rummaging, and A Recipe!
Mid July in North Idaho heralds the arrival of a berry that I am more than fond of:
Raspberries!!!
There are a few rows of raspberries growing on our farm, but as with almost every other fruit crop that I grow on the farm, its yield isn't quite enough to feed my Polynesian fruit inhalation family through the long, cold winter months. Every year I enlarge my raspberry crop plantings, and while I wait for the raspberry canes to get established, thriving, and most importantly, yielding, I take the opportunity to visit local U-pick farms for fresh fruit to fill our freezer.
Today's raspberry stop was a cute little patch down in neighboring Post Falls, Idaho. The patch is ran by an older couple and their very friendly Australian shepherd. Their berry canes have attained fruit bearing greatness of over six feet in height and have a lush, leafy habitat that makes them impenetrable hedgerows of fruit producing gloriousness.
The thing I like the most about this particular U-pick joint, besides the amazing berries and price per pound, are the people that run the patch. They are just so chill. Here's a sample dialogue from this morning:
Me: "Good morning! How are ya?"
Them: "Amazing, the day is great! Grab yourselves a bucket and wander anywhere you want to pick. Do you need anything?"
Me: "Just a bunch of berries."
My husband: "Can we leave the children as payment?"
Me: "GROWL!"
Them: "We already have some of their kind, but you are more than welcome to use the picnic tables for lunch! Have fun!!!"
Like I said, cool people.
There are times when being small in stature comes in handy. Most of the normal size people on the planet don't bend over and get the berries near the ground, so as I was lurking down near the lower depths of the raspberry patch liberating the mother load of red caps of palate-pleasing joy, my ears became aware of a sound.
The sound, which had a cackling quality to it grew in volume. I glanced to the left and to the right, as I was in the middle of a particularly lush row. The leaves to my left at the end of the row started rustling and I was accosted by a flock of blue roan spotted ducks.
"Find another row interlopers." I quacked threateningly.
"Oh how cute!" my daughter chirped.
The ducks and I were on the same level, eye to eye, and we stood there, webbed and cowboy boot clad feet askew. The lead duck quacked and I quacked back. They went their way and I returned to my berry picking labors. Strangely enough, the ducks hung out in my vicinity for quite some time. We were cool like that.
Once I got the berries home I froze some individually like I usually do, for aside from jam for the PBandJ monster that inhabits the East wing of our home, and the occasional cheesecake sauce, most of the raspberries in our home get used in smoothies.
Here is my favorite raspberry smoothie recipe:
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 handful (around a 1/2 cup frozen or fresh raspberries)
4-6 ice cubes
1/2 cup lowfat cottage cheese
2 teaspoons erythritol and stevia blend (Pyure or Truvia)
1/32 tsp stevia extract powder
1/8 teaspoon glucomannan powder (optional, it makes the smoothie thicker!)Optional add ins:
1 oz dark chocolate (I used a square of Ghiradeli 100% dark unsweetened cacao because I don't usually eat sugar)
OR
1-2 teaspoons unsweetened baking cocoa
OR
1-2 Tablespoons cream cheese
OR
All of the above (I have done it!)
Throw everything in the blender but the glucomannan. Blend aggressively, like with the intensity of a cheetah pursuing a gazelle. Add the glucomannan if you are using and continue blending. Let sit for a minute and blend hard one more time. Pour into a glass and drink your frosty raspberry delight!
I usually put the baking cocoa in my raspberry smoothies, but tonight I wanted little bits of dark chocolate floating around in my shake, and yum! Mission accomplished! The cream cheese add in makes the smake, er, smoothie taste like a chocolate raspberry cheesecake! Honestly, I just tend to throw in whatever I have in the fridge, for as long as the chocolate and raspberry flavors are swimming together in my glass, I'm probably going to be somewhat happy.
Sweeteners are a personal choice, and whatever floats your sweet tooth boat will work here, just experiment like I did!
I love, love, love learning about recipes from other people! What are some other delicious ways that I could use my raspberries? I'm kinda thinking about experimenting with some raspberry sorbet, and I used to get these raspberry spritzers when I was a kid that I really adored. Well, I adored shaking and spraying them at my brother, but that adoration was admirable, don't ya think?
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's raspberry stained iPhone.
