Summer’s Simple Pleasures

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to pick berries, any kind. Strawberries arrive first, then raspberries, blueberries, blackberries. I have several kinds of berries growing in my back yard including different types of currants, elderberries, red gooseberries, and aronia berries. This is my playground. I love working in the garden, picking berries and eating them or cooking with them.

Red and Pink Currants, Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries….!

Fresh picked black raspberries from my garden!

A few years ago we planted a Marionberry bush. If you have never had Marionberries, they are delicious! I don’t have a picture of these for this post, but they were developed at Oregon State University in 1945, and mainly grow in the Northwest. To keep it simple, they are basically a cross between a blackberry, a loganberry and a raspberry. They are large, juicy, sweet blackberries. I look forward to them every summer now, and I am going to try to propagate my bush because one is just not enough!

Enjoy fresh berries, all sorts this summer. Pick them, eat them, put them in pancakes, muffins, donuts, pies, sauces, syrups drizzled over ice cream! Be creative! Summer is short, and the berries don’t last long.