offcntr | Today's harvest (Reply)

A bowl full of golden raspberries! Got one plant at a "That's My Farmer" fundraiser years ago, as a door prize. They've taken over the end of the raised bed, and every year we pull out and pot a bunch of runners, to give away. They ripen early--this is the second picking-- go dormant in the hot part of summer, but come back again for another round of fruit in the fall. The best part? They aren't red.

You see, years ago when we moved in, my friend Leslie gave us a bunch of plant starts for the garden (along with a van load of rotted sheep manure), including half a dozen strawberry plants. They flowered beautifully, fruited vigorously (see sheep manure, above), and we got to eat exactly none of them. As soon as they got the slightest bit pink, scrub jays flew in and stole them. We eventually just pulled up the plants and composted them.

I expected the same thing to happen with these, but apparently the birds don't recognize them as ripe. So we get raspberries on our breakfast bowls.