Some of My Favorite Things (Raspberries and Joe)

One of my favorite things about Summer is that I have Raspberries in my backyard. This is my 5Th Summer picking berries. Since I have lived in my house I have been able to pick about 20 1lb cottage cheese cartons of berries, each year. I am not quite sure on the exact amount, because I eat them throughout the Summer, plus it depends on how the weather is during the season.
Whenever I pick berries that have been eaten by bugs or get moldy I throw them out by my fence and let new plants grow. In the past 4 years I have doubled my amount of plants. Some
of the seeds get into my yard, also. My goal is to have the whole back yard of nothing but raspberries. Hey, less lawn to mow.
That's the nice thing about living in the UP. Yards don't have to be prissy perfectly manicured. The first two Summers I was all fussing over my bushes. Now I have decided to let them grow naturally. At first I sprayed for bugs and used Miracle Grow. I decided not too use bug spray.
God already made natural "bug spray," they're called spiders. I have so much more respect for God and spiders, now that I have started growing stuff. But I still don't like them when they get in my house (Spiders, not God. I love having the Lord and Holy Spirit in my home). God made spiders to eat the bugs that would eat the berries. Anyways, the chemicals stunt the growth of the bushes and make them less full. If I let the spiders do their God given work I don't need bug spray, thus not needing Miracle Grow.
Not to sound like a big 'ol hippie-lippy, but, I would prefer not to use chemicals. The berries seem to taste better, now that I am not using any chemicals at all. Think about it, berries growing in the woods don't need chemicals and they do just fine. God watches over them, and He is the best gardener and landscaper. After all, He created them. God knew what He was doing when he created the land, climates and food that grow in the places He put them.
I think next Summer, or at least the Summer after that I will have enough berries to take to the Farmers market. Right now I can only pick enough for one half to a full carton a day. By the time I get enough to take up there the older ones get moldy. Unless I put them in the freezer. But I need to take fresh ones.
Through putting them in the freezer they can last me almost the entire year until the next picking season. Every Summer I make at least one or two annual sponge cakes with raspberry sauce and real whipped cream, the stuff in the cartons that I whip with a mixer, on top. I also like to make raspberry coffee and iced tea. When I make them I put the berries in the percolator basket with the grounds or tea-bags. Just because I am poor doesn't mean I can't spoil myself.



My cat Joe, also likes raspberries. When I first moved into my house he would follow me around when I picked berries. In fact he would pick berries himself. It was so cute. He would grab the stem, pull it to his level, put his mouth around a berry and eat it. I asked his vet if it was OK for him to eat raspberries. She said it was all right. Advice for any cat owner out there, she said cats can eat any fruit, except grapes. Grapes make them sick. Also, she said that if ya can get cats to eat berries that's good.
The next two Springs when I let him out after a Winter inside he would run to the bushes and sniff around for berries. He knew that there would be more raspberries. But now he has gotten spoiled. Now, after the berries have been picked and put in the fridge I will give him the berries as treats, plus I give them to him when I have friends over to show them how cute it is that he eats raspberries. So now he figures that he doesn't need to go to the work of picking them himself. When I pick them now I feed them to him by hand. I think he has figured that I put the better ones in the carton. So he tries to stick his nose in the carton, while I pick. He also likes strawberries and other fruits.