What Thou Sowest, That Shall Ye also Reap--Red Raspberries!

Friday In Grumpy's Garden; Grumpy's Castle WA --

In a previous post, progress was shown in the Upside-Down Tomatoes that Grumpy planted the latter part of May. Today's post is about another more conventional part of Grumpy's Garden: The Red Raspberry Row.

The old next-door neighbors (Paul and Louise Rice) planted and for years nurtured a patch of red raspberry vines. I say a "patch" because they never (in my memory at least) took the time to provide a trellis or wire upon which to string the long new growth upon which the next season's raspberries grow the largest and most profusely. Neither did the Rice's take care to control the spread of these rhizomatic plants. Hence, after a time there arose on Grumpy's Estate a field of raspberry plants.

As Paul and Louise grew older, they decided to eliminate the raspberries from their side of the lot-line. Grumpy decided to nurture the raspberries that he had "inherited" by providing them with an appropriate trellis on which the fruitful vines could be hung. The "trellis" consists of four strands of #20 wire strung between two 6-foot steel conduits planted in cement-filled holes. Each Fall, Grumpy cuts the old stems back to ground level and selects the lustiest and most promising new vines to hang on the wire trellis. I also pull up or dig out any rhizomes that precede the migration of the vine to other parts of the yard, maintaining a more-or-less straight line of vines corresponding to the wire trellis location. By keeping the vines constrained along the trellis, Grumpy has access to both sides of the row, thereby easing the job of finding and picking the ripe berries.

Grumpy placed a 25-foot piece of "soaker hose" (pervious hose designed to allow slow seepage of water through its many pores) along the length of the raspberry row and has maintained a windrow of composted chipped/shredded garden waste along the length of the row. The composted material helps to evenly spread the water emanating from the soaker hose and also minimizes evaporation of the water from the soil, besides adding the nutrients from the compost back into the soil.

When Grumpy left on 18 June for the now-infamous "4-Day Trek to Florida", he pleaded with those who remained behind at his Castle to harvest the berries when they became ripe, which he thought would be about 28 June. Having no committment from anyone that the harvest would take place as desired, Grumpy anticipated that his Red Raspberry Row would be rife with shrunken or bird-pecked fruit. Much to his pleasant surprise, when he went to examine it on Friday, it was loaded with prime-to-harvest fruit!!

Grumpy picked enough fresh raspberries to make two pies (about four cups each). Grumpy immediately partook of some of the berries to perk up his morning oatmeal (low fat, high-fiber and healthy fruit!). The Grand Mother cached enough for one pie in the deep freezer for another time, and made a super-delicious looking pie for Grumpy with the rest. The sheer beauty of the pie suggests that it would be good to eat. Subsequent "taste testing" proved that "looks do not deceive". Of course, Grumpy would say, "If the Grand Mother makes it, it will be good!!" With the pie still warm from the oven and a dollop of ice cream, the Grand Mother and Grumpy had a tasty before-bedtime snack. Healthy too; all that fresh fruit, you know!