It's harvest season on the farmette, and one of the most amazing and good-tasting crops we grow was already here when we moved in and basically grows wild in pockets around the property.
Black caps or black raspberries are these tiny, sweet berries that punch way above their weight in antioxidants.
They've even been studied for their ability to prevent cancer.
One description on the interweb called them 'one of the healthiest fruits on the planet'. That's a good thing to know, since I've been chowing down on them for the past week.
We have a particularly big patch beside the garage, and yesterday I was out there diving deep.
They are like regular raspberries, but much smaller, and the canes like to hook your arms and hands and legs and just about any kind of exposed skin so that, if you're not careful, you can wind up looking like you had an encounter with a wild cat (!?!?!)
It's a sneaky plant, too. The berries like to hide under the lovely pinnate leaves, which means you have to really dig down - into the grasping thorns - to get all the goodies.
Their lovely purpleness transfers quite nicely to fingers that are plucking them - note the fetching pinkish stain my hands acquired during the picking/eating fest.
That's okay. They're still worth it. And I thank whoever it was that started all this - probably Mrs. Glass who lived here for 60 years.
We also had our first meal in which all the vegetables were pulled and plucked from our garden mere minutes before (lightly) cooking. Just before supper, I 'guddled' some potatoes. We use the old Scottish term for stealing a few out of the soil without wrecking the plant. It actually refers to tickling the underbelly of a fish so you can catch it without using a pole.
My second planting of bean bushes finally decided to produce, and the weed-infested nest that constitutes my carrot crop yielded a few tender tasties as well.
These, along with some perfectly cooked pork tenderloin medallions and some yummy chutney completed a spectacular homemade Saturday dinner.
I gotta say, I love this season - and my taste buds and slightly paunchy (slowly getting less so) middle-aged stomach loves it even more.
Until next week.