2007 Raspberry Madness Thread

[Chief]

Time to start this one, because my berries are already setting fruit! I could have berries in the next 2 weeks depending on what the weather does. I redesigned and rebuilt my trellis last year in order to maximize the yield off of my canes. Right now I have several dozen major new canes growing beside the mature ones that are just loaded with berries this year. Here are some pics of the trellis I built...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/trellis2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/trellis3.jpg

The old trellis was about five feet high, and the berries were extremely crowded on it. The top three feet of the canes were bent over and interlaced and tangled into a huge mess. Last summer after the berries were done, I pruned them heavily, and tore out the old trellis. I had used metal post supports for the upgrights, (the kind you pound into the ground, then clamp a 4 x 4 into) with a 4' cross member on top, for each end. I just removed the whole thing and started from scratch. I put in 2 8' 4x4 posts, anchored in concrete on each end. Then I built the cantilevered arms, and hung them on pivot bolts. Then I strung a series of wires between the arms to hold the canes.

It's hard to see, but there is heavy wire holding those arms up, front and back. The idea was to be ably to move the front support wire up or down as needed. Heres what it looks like from the front.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/trellis1.jpg

You can see how dense the bundles of canes are across the front. They are all in full flower and loaded with fruit! The font support wire is almost 10 feet off of the ground. That enables the biggest canes to grow pretty much straight up and into the sun.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/raspberries07.jpg

I also have a dedicated sprinkler zone, just for the raspberries. I have installed micro-drip emitters and a whole series of spay heads in and among the canes, so when they get dry, I can hit that zone for 10 minutes and water them directly, and thouroughly. Raspberries seem to benefit from leaf watering as well as root watering, so I gave them both.

The plan for this year is after the canes are picked out and pruned for the summer, I am going to have to dig up and divide a couple of the major cane groups. A couple of them have 50 or more canes coming up, and they will go nuts next year if I divide them this fall.

Yesterday I moved 7 small starts over to my neighbor's new reapberry bed. He's so impressed with my berries, that he built a dedicated raspberry bed just for some of my starts.

So we are off and running on Rapberry season here. I'll update this periodically when picking starts so I can document this year's yield. Last year I harvested 12 Gallons, the year before only 9 Gallons. This year I am shooting for a 15 Gallon harvest, and from the looks of things now, I won;t have a problem meeting that goal.

Developing!!

;D

[karma]

Nice set up Chief, but honestly you need to seriously think about some nice wine grapes!! :-*

[Chief]

feh!...

You only say that because you have never sampled my home made raspberry liqueur...

[Chief]

All of this rain along with the intermittent sun is slowly ripening fruit.

Friday I found a single, perfectly rip raspberry. My neighbor sampled one that was red, but not ripe, and it was good and sour.

Yesterday I picked about a cup, and Mrs. Chief used them in her oatmeal for breakfast.

This morning I was out looking around and if it gets warm and sunny today, I may have a good pint or so ripen. The ripe ones are increasing daily, and now we just need some hot sunny days, and I'll be picking at least a quart a day soon.

The other phenomenon this year is the number of new canes that are shooting up from the root systems in the bed. Last fall I forked up the whole bed, just to loosen the soil up to let the compost penetrate. I've since added all kinds of amendments and kept them turned in thoroughly. The payoff is new canes that will bear fruit next year, that are already poking up above the new trellis. Several of the new ones are eight feet high, and still growing. There are dozens of new canes that are growing about a foot and a half a week...

I have been trimming off the older leaves on those new canes, and supporting them with strings, to lead them to specific open spots on the trellis wires. When you remove the lower leaves, it opens up the space to sunlight and air, which lets the inside berries ripen, and it encourages the new canes to grow even higher. After the berries are all harvested, I'll prune back the old canes and start training the new ones in preparation for next year. It's a neat cycle, and increasingly challenging to keep all of it in some sense of order to max out production.

This year I am going to go for a very select harvest of the ripest berries, and reserve those for jelly, and a few bottles of raspberry cordial. I also bought some good chocolate molds last Christmas, with the intention of making some chocolate truffles with a razz-berry cordial center...

In the meantime, I hope the neighbors like raspberries, because I am well on my way to a 15 Gallon harvest of fresh raspberries this year. A couple of them want me to teach them how to make jelly this year, and I have plans to make some raspberry vinaigrette too.

Details to follow, and if you want some berries, lemme know....

;D


Editing to add a couple of pictures, taken today...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/June10th2007028.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/June10th2007029.jpg

I use a hot pink mason's line to tie the new shoots up to the wires, because it's easy to see and keep track of in the morass of vegetation these canes put out.

[karma]

Nice crop, that reminds me I have to go tie up the blueberries as they are falling over, they are loaded! We should be eating them shortly.

[Chief]

Updating...

I've picked at least .75 Quarts each day this week, and the total stands at 4.25 Quarts...so we have our first gallon in the freezer, and among the neighbors. I had a couple of the neighbor girls over helping me pick last night, and I think they had a good time finding the good berries in there.

If it gets hot tomorrow, there's at least 2 quarts that will pop ripe immediately. The more ripe berries you pick, the more ripe berries the canes produce...at this point they will ripen overnight...

;D

[Chief]

Updating....

As of last night, the pick count stands at 13.75 Quarts, or almost 3.5 Gallons of raspberries so far this season, and we have only been picking for barely 2 weeks now.

This week I started seeing the multiple quart picks. 2 nights we got 2 full quarts each (Tuesday and Wednesday back to back) and at least 1.75 Quarts the other nights. We skipped a day last week because it was so cool at night they berries didn't ripen much at all. If it stays warm overnight though, they will ripen even in the dark. Some of the best berries are buried way down inside the canes where the least light can penetrate anyway.

I had a couple of the neighbor girls over to help pick the other day. They got almost a quart between them, and I finished it off with the ones they couldn't reach. They are 9 and 10 and they can get at the lower berries better than I can. I'm too tall to be able to work my way into the center without getting on my knees, whereas the girls have those berries at eye level...they were picking raspberries down on the ground, while one of the girls' Dad and I were picking bing cherries at the same time...

We have had some beauties in the raspberry patch so far. You can tell they are perfectly ripe when you touch a berry and it falls right into your hand. Those are hard to keep because the temptation is to gobble them as you go...and they make the best jelly.

Speaking of Jelly. What I do is freeze each picking immediately, (unless my wife and I walk a quart over to the neighbors, like we did last night) on a cookie sheet. I don't even wash them, they go right into the freezer. I don't want a bunch of water in the berries I intend for jelly. The loose particles fall off onto the cookie sheet, and you can pick the rock hard berries up much easier once they are frozen.

I sort the frozen ones by color; reserving the darkest, and ripest, berries in a separate bag from the rest. Once I can fill a 1 gallon freezer bag full of dark red berries, it's time to make juice for jelly. We aren't there yet, but we'll pick until early August, so I have another 12 gallons of berries (I hope) to pick from for jelly.

My neighbor comsense has been after me to share how to make decent jelly, and picking only the best berries is a start. Mid July we should be able to start hitting Sauvie's Island for blueberries and boysenberries. I'm always interested in a good source for picking wild huckleberries too, so if anybody has a place to go picking those later this summer, by all means share!

We also use the rendered juice to make gelato. It's pretty simple with strained fruit juice, some simple syrup and an icecream machine. It's killer in flavor, no fat whatsoever, and really hits the spot on a warm evening....

The pickin' goes on!...

;D

[karma]

Wow, lots of pickin' and grinnin'!! We are up to a gallon of blue berries, does that count?? ;D

[Chief]

Sure does!

I just went out at 11:30 and picked two overflowing quarts. I think I can pick another quart tonight if it warms up this afternoon...

[Chief]

updating....

Last night I went out around 6:00 and picked a Quart of ripe berries. There were plenty left that were red, but unripe.

This morning at 9:00 I went out and looked, and much to my surprize, there were a ton more berries that had ripened overnight...so I just finished picking another three quarts!

That brings the total so far to 23.25 Quarts of berries! That is just under Six Gallons..

And we are nowhere near done yet!!

;D

[tefen]

This is quite impressive. We've got a fairly "natural" back yard right now. ( Meaning it's a mess. my task this year has been cleaning up tons and tons of old vegetation that's gotten out of hand. ) I've always thought of raspberries as a weed in these parts, but with your trellis setup, they don't look so bad, and could actually provide a fairly effective (and delicious) screen between the neighbor's house an mine.

I might have to try this next year.

[Chief]

Let me know if you want some starts. Seriously! I gave my neighbor some and he's well on his way to a jungle of berries next summer. These are very productive canes, even if we don't know what variety they are.

[karma]

I'll trade ya a bag of blueberries for a bag of raspberries.

[Chief]

I'll take you up on that one, I could use the space in my freezer. I'm rendering 2 gallons for juice today to make room for more berries later this week...

[karma]

Deal!! Ya making jam with the juice?

[Chief]

Jelly, sorbet, and glacee...

[Chief]

Updating....

As of Saturday night the numbers stand as follows...

37.25 Quarts or 9.3125 Gallons so far. Some of the canes are winding down but there are still plenty of immature berries left to ripen. I may actually come in at less than last year, because a lot of the older canes are dying off, while there are dozens of new canes already growing that won't bear fruit till next year.

Still, the fruit we are getting this year is way better than before....lots of really large berries...

[karma]

Dang, you are putting me to shame. We have only 2 gallons of Blueberries in the freezer, we keep giving them away and eating. You are supposed to eat before you have to many to freeze!

[Chief]

We went out and picked the last few hangers-on today, and raspberry season is over for this year. We ended the weekd with 5.5 more quarts, which puts us at 10 5/8 Gallons of berries for this year. The bottom of our freezer is full, and I'll get a bunh of those renedered for juice here soon, and start making some jelly...

;D

[karma]

Well I'm up to 3 gallons of blueberries and I'll be picking for at least a couple more times. We are starting to eat nice frest veggies from the garden.

[Chief]

I spent the last week pruning the hell out of these canes. I finally got all of this year's dead and dying canes out of there, and trimmed off all of the first leaves from the new canes. That enabled me to go ahead and train the new canes onto the trellis.

All of these green sticks are new canes that grew in from nothing just this year...

You can see the pile of debris in the compost pile....I'm on the hunt for a used chipper shredder right now, and will shred all of that stuff very soon.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/prunings.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/prunings2.jpg

It looks severe, but it really isn't. By pruning the initial sets of leaves off, it stimulates the canes to grow longer. These bare green sticks will have 2 feet of growth and six new pair of leaves on all of them by month's end. I'll have to come back out in September and re-train and re-tie all of these all over again...

I'm also out with the garden fork, tuning the bed over, and re-loosening the soil from where we walked in the bed to pick berries. That encourages the canes to send out runners, and get set to grow more new canes next year. I'm thinking about adding another row of timbers to the top of the bed to hold another foot of compost...

;D

[karma]

Sounds great Chief but I'd nix the wood timbers and go with something more permanent as in stone. With carpenter ants in this area you really should look at something other than wood. I'll be taking out the wood for the blueberries area and using scallped edging after seeing what we took out when we did the utility box. It appears you have some happy berries there and they are well cared for. We are still picking blueberries and hope for one more serious picking to get the last of them. We are up to 7 gallons of them so far, I have one reserved for ya!