It is a Berry Good Summer...

Warning - garden post below:

We've been fairly cool, and quite dry - since April - so my summer veggies are still languishing. But the berries have been very happy this year.

Strawberries are always the first to ripen. This past year I pulled out my older patch and replaced them all with Tri-star berries. They start early, and while not heavy bearers, they continue to consistently produce sweet, tasty berries up until it gets too cold for them to ripen (late October/early November)... I have strawberries on my Trader Joe's granola every morning for over four months. A happy thing...

Blueberries begin to ripen next. I have 6 different varieties - early, mid and late season - so again, I get berries from mid-June all the way through October. They all taste different. My favorites are the spicy-sweet-tart early bushes...

Right now, the gooseberries are waiting for me to pick them from their thorny branches. I have sweet, pink varieties - sweet enough to eat fresh (all the green ones I've had are too tart to eat uncooked). They are even better frozen.

This is my first year for red currants. This variety was sweeter than I'd expected. Beautiful, ruby globes. I cooked them with rhubarb, onion and spices for a fabulously tangy chutney.

These are jostaberries - a cross between black currants and gooseberries. They taste... dark, smoky and complex. The taste really grows on you. They are also terrific frozen. I put them in smoothies all year.

Oh, and the raspberries...

We get bowls and bowls of raspberries from my patch. Sweet, tart and tangy - for me, the very essence of summer.

There are fall berries still to come - seaberries, aronia berries, lingonberries, wintergreen, magnolia berries, goji berries, highbush cranberries, grapes, and new for me this year - minature kiwis! Much berry goodness to look forward to!

Now back to illustration...