Red Ripe Raspberries

My summer love is red ripe raspberries.  Growing an endless supply of red ripe raspberries is a skill and love that was passed on to me by my Great Grandfather Herbie.

My Grandma Shirley and I would joke around saying the man could grow anything, in any soil and had a magic garden hoe that did the work for him.

When we purchased our home the first spring, I went and got everbearing raspberry starts to grow my own raspberries. Read how to start & maintain your own raspberry patch.

I wait impatiently for the first berries to ripen.

Each morning, from mid-July through August our family has collected the berries since that first season.

To keep the shape of the berries, I place the berries on a baking sheet in a single layer. Pop them in the freezer and freeze them solid.  After they are frozen, they get transferred to freezer bags or containers. The berries keep in the freezer for about a year.  Which gets me through to the next season.

Having the choice of pulling the raspberries out of the freezer at my leisure to make all sorts of goodies.

Raspberry Freezer Jam

One item that gets made from the frozen berries, is freezer jam.  There is nothing quite like the taste of summer during a morning that Wisconsin is experiencing a snowstorm.

Interested in making your own freezer jam?  It is simple.  Promise.  RECIPE HERE.

Raspberry Torte

There is one menu item that I can’t use frozen raspberries for.  Only fresh will do.  I make this recipe passed down from my Grandma Shirley for sweet and tart raspberry torte .

A no bake dessert using a vanilla wafer base, cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and cool whip.  It is a heavenly, sinful treat.  A pleasure for the senses and devilish for your waistline.

Recipe Here

Throughout the growing season, we use the berries in infused water, we have dyed clothing with them and used them to make fruit salads. The leaves and the Japanese beetles that made a feast out of the patch one summer, even served as inspiration for a photography print collection.

The ability to produce a healthy crop of red ripe raspberries was most certainly passed onto me by my grandfather.  Regrettably, Grandpa Herbie’s garden hoe does not go by itself.  My garden work, is just that; WORK.