Black Raspberries

The crown jewels of summer. Delightful little morsels of tart sweetness. A bit seedy to those who are squeamish about such things, but I couldn't be more content than turning my lips purple with constant snacking.
And that's what I did last week, as I forayed into a wild black raspberry patch with my mom and sister-in-law. We picked a lot of berries, and ate our fill as well. There wasn't much poison ivy right next to the plants, which was a blessing.
Here is one of our piles of berries.



And that's not all of them. We probably filled 4 dishpans, if we had piled them all on top of one another. I've never canned berries before, but we attempted because I don't know how much freezer space I'll have in West Virginia, and transporting frozen food can be sort of a bother. So I think we ended up with 16 or so pints of black raspberries that actually sealed and an additional 10 quarts of frozen berries that my mom and I will share. Here's a pic of the canned berries.



And with the berries that were left over, I made 2 blackberry custard pies. One for neighbors who just moved in next door to my house in Harrisburg, and one for the farm workers and volunteers who enjoy a home cooked meal every Friday at lunch. I haven't heard back from the neighbors yet, but the pie that I took to the farm caused an arm wrestling match for the last slice. It was scrumptious :)