Black Raspberry Season!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been harvesting black raspberries. On some past blog entries, I said we were harvesting blackberries. We weren't. Blackberries are pulled off of stems and are larger than raspberries. Raspberries leave a white thing behind on the plant, and they have a hollowed out top because of it. The blackberries are just now coming in and we're gathering a handful or so each day. For the past 2 1/2 weeks we have been harvesting 1-2 pints of black raspberries each day, and they are delicious!

We have put raspberries in every salad, made raspberry soda, raspberry gelato for dessert, raspberry thumbprint cookies and raspberry jam. I tried canning for the first time! I didn't take step-by-step pictures because I just followed the directions inside the Sure-Gel package. It turned out great and I've made a second batch since then. I added a picture (above) of some of the jars (the ones that haven't grown legs and found new homes already) on the old fashioned kitchen we got from my mother-in-law's store, the Ozark Mercantile.

I'm still trying to convince Josh to write a guest blog entry about the raspberry soda. I bought Josh a water carbonator for father's day and we're going to try sarsaparilla next. Raspberry gelato is simply raspberries, sugar and cream.

I enjoy canning and am considering all kinds of new recipes. Corn cob jelly and walnut praline syrup are the next two on my list. Our garden hasn't taken off quite as well as I had hoped, so I'm going to start frequenting the farmer's market to buy in season vegetables for canning and freezing.

I recently purchased Super Baby Food and, although we aren't starting solids for a while, I plan on making and freezing some baby food (in ice cube trays) so we can feed Ben lots of healthy local vegetables when he starts eating.

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Ben is really starting to enjoy toys. He has been practicing moving his pacifier from his left hand to his right and back, and then back in his mouth (but always sideways or some weird way where it doesn't fit right). He's cooing and ah-gooing, enjoying his swimming pool (lots of kicking), and sleeping in his crib for at least the first half of every night.