Berry Season

I will resist the urge to use the word "berry" for the word "very" in this post. It's so trite. But it's also berry hard. Whoops! I mean very hard. Because what else is there to say when you post pictures of the luscious strawberries, red raspberries, and purple raspberries that are bursting forth all over your yard? Except maybe how sad you will be that they most likely won't be YOUR berries by this time next year. That does make one berry sad. Oh dang it! Very sad. Anyway, if you have a spare patch of ground in the corner of your hard, I highly recommend some berry bushes or a berry patch. They grow back on their own every year and are berry very little maintenance. Start with everbearing strawberries. They'll start blooming in early spring and by late May or early June you'll have your first handful of delicious, sweet berries. In July your raspberries will bear fruit and will do so all month long. In August you will still get a few raspberries and some strawberries, though they will dwindle a bit in the heat. And then in September, as it cools down, you'll get one last burst of strawberries. There are so may ways to use raspberries and strawberries in your food: You can freeze them for smoothies, boil them with some sugar for hot berry sauce over vanilla ice cream. You can throw them on your cereal so that you feel all official like the cereal box picture. Mix them into your lemonade or pancake batter. Sprinkle them between layers of chocolate cake. Or, just eat them right off the bush, like my daughter and I love to do. No matter what way you use them, summer berries, fresh from your garden, are, well, berry berry good.


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