PICKING WILD RASPBERRIES

It was my daughter`s 1st birthday recently and with lots of family

around we went for a walk in a near by forest park called Donadea. We walked around the lake and fed the ducks which were so used to people they waddled around our feet on the bank they were lovely fat ducks and the temptation to grab one to take home for the pot was almost overwhelming. Of course the fact that my daughter was in my arms also deterred me from tackling one of our web footed friends she of course thought they were toys and did her utmost to free herself from my grasp in order to wring one of there necks, like she does with all toys and she probably would have done a better job than myself the poor duck wouldn`t have know what happened it anyway enough about the ducks and on to the raspberries i honestly walked past them without even noticing until my dad said look at the wild raspberry`s, plants are his field of expertise.

Wild raspberries are clever plants the berries grow under the leaves in the shade and are almost invisible until you lift up the branch to reveal there bounty also the vines are light weight so only the smallest birds can perch on them resulting in plentiful berries which are smaller and sweeter than the cultivated varieties. We easily picked about 6 punnets in a half hour and ate them with soft chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream and used the left overs to make white chocolate mousse and raspberry jelly from a recipe by the pastry chef in work.

While we were picking the berries i noticed an abundance of wild blackberry bushes with flowers and early fruit growth they looked potentially like a bigger crop even than the raspberries planning to go back in about 3 weeks to find out and also plan on feeding truffle shavings to my brother in laws Labrador on the sly guess i might have to offer to walk his dog allot.

There`s a Berry picking video in the You Tube Application at the

bottom of this page.