Hi first year-
Sounds like you have a raspberry patch which is just too big for you? If all mine came in a the same time, I'd be overwhelmed too. Perhaps you want to make your existing patch smaller? Or possibly introduce some new varieties so you stagger your harvest? Do you know what variety they are?
-Glenn

You may be sick of them now, but when you compare the quality of your frozen berries this winter to what you can buy from a store you will wish you had put away 10 gallons-at least that is how I am about my blueberries. I put away about 6 and it isn't nearly enough.

I had the same feeling about strawberries in early June, but am now wishing I'd frozen more as each daily smoothie depletes the freezer.

Hi Glenn,

No, not sure the variety, but they are some very tasty, very large red raspberries. I meant for my gripe to be a bit tongue in cheek. As difficult as it is some days to get home from work and have to start picking, I'd much rather have more berries than I know what to do with than too few. Plus, it's probably easier to get all the hard work out of the way in a two week period than picking over a more extended period.

I planted blueberries this year and am planning on adding Strawberries and Gooseberries next year, so I'm sure I'll be looking back to right now as the easy days in a couple years.

4qts is not enough. Put up more than you'll use in a year because there will be bad years.
I had 12qts of cherries last year, just enough for the year. This year I got 3qts.
I'm not a big jam eater or wine drinker, those won't happen until I run out of freezer space.

I got sick of apple pie for a while last year(I have no idea how many qts I put up but over 1 bushel went to pies). Now I'm down to 4 pies worth and rationing them so they last until harvest.

Let's try converting raspberries to dollars and see if your sickness is partially cured.

20 quarts = 5 gallons, estimate at least 7 pounds per gallon, harvest to date is 35 pounds.

Private-property raspberries are being offered here in Portland for $6 per pound.

35 x 6 is $210 worth of raspberries; store-bought would cost even more, although u-picks from a grower's field could be had for about $55.

I wish I had your problem, but if you donÂt pick them, the birds will, and I am sure they would be glad to do it.

You could invite friends, coworkers, or just put a sign in front of the house help yourself. I think it would empty out fast. You may even get a neighbor to trade for cutting your grass or shoveling snow.

Firstyear:

Yours is a heartbreaking story. Suggest you learn to make red raspberry preserves. There is nothing quite as good. A little Pomona's pectin and you are good to go. And they are from MA.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

mr ed, Birds must be different where you live, they never seem to eat raspberries here, or currants. Now blueberries, mulberries, and goumis, that's another story. My theory is that raspberries don't provide a place for them to land to eat them. The old raspberries just dry up and turn moldy on my bushes.

I don't freeze many raspberries or blueberries, they mostly get eaten fresh, but my freezer is taken up mostly with my very big harvests of Aronia berries.

Birds, raccoons clean the tops and rabbits, deer and vole raise havoc with my blackberry and raspberry canes. So between that, and my five kids, I am lucky to see left over berries.

But I am growing a mulberry tree to distract the local birds and possibly the kids.

That's how it was in the old days. Massive harvests and seasonal eating until you were sick of the thing. Then you get a break all year and back at it next year.

Wish I had all those berries. For me, a handful of berries a day is a good haul. Well, something to look forward to!

I know how you feel, Firstyear. And you're right, you'll appreciate that jam in the middle of the winter. I find it helps to put on some music while picking. I listened to Sibelius' 2nd symphony on my Ipod a couple days ago, the first two movements the first day and the last two the next day. Excellent berry picking music.

I know we've had our fill when I can bring a bowl into the house and the kids don't make them disappear in under 30 seconds:)

Another thing I have really enjoyed the last couple of years is watching the bees pollinate our raspberries. I actually put down a lawn chair and just watch them for 15-20 min at a time. We have at least 5 species of bees in all shapes/sizes and they seem to enjoy our raspberries even more than the fruit trees.

One other idea is to make syrup. Don't be put off if you've never made it. It's extremely easy. If you don't have a food mill, put your berries through a blender. Then strain the mashed pulp through a wire strainer to strain out the seeds. Bring to a boil and add about 50% sugar. Can in quart sized jars. Syrups are great on pancakes in the winter-time. My wife goes crazy over the blackberry syrup I make. She adds it to her tea to make blackberry tea. One gallon of berries will make a little over a quart of syrup.

One other thing I forgot to mention. They'll probably be some disagreement, but I've found jams/syrups from homegrown frozen berries are not nearly as good as from fresh. Jams/syrups from frozen berries are OK (about the equivalent of storebought) but jams/syrups from fresh berries are exceptional.

Thanks for the great idea about the syrup...we do like our pancakes in the winter. There are now 12 quarts tucked in the freezer, plus 8 half-pints of jam. Probably turn everything from here on out into syrup and tuck that away for winter as well. To my surprise, the canes are still kicking along. I thought they'd be spent by now, but they just seem to keep producing. They look ratty, but every day I wake up and there are more bright red berries waiting to be picked.

I have almost the exact same "problem." It is just amazing how many berries those canes are pumping out! By the time I've picked them after work, I'm too tired to do much with them. I've got 12 gallon bags of them in the freezer, 10 pints of jam, 4 half pints of chocolate raspberry jam and 6 bottles of raspberry vinegar. I'd also recommend making the raspberry vinegar as something else to do with the berries--it is really, really easy and far superior in taste and gorgeous color to what you can buy in the store.

Invite friends or neighbors to come and pick as much as they like. I have several people currently indebted to me, after doing that.... ;)

--Jonathan

You won't mind if I laugh. When I was growing up in Eastern Europe there were no deep freezers so everything was made into jam. Of course, I am referring to late fifties and early sixties. I still keep with some traditions. Preserve tomatoes, roast peppers and freeze, make jam from red currants and Josta berries from my garden. I get enough Josta berries for freezing and jam. I learned from my neighbor to chop chives and freeze. They are surprisingly good.

Thought I'd post a follow-up. Seems when I thought the harvest was ending, it was just ramping up. We went from picking 2-3 quarts every other day, to picking 2-3 quarts everyday. The final quart was finally brought in yesterday and I just finished cutting out and bagging all the spent canes this morning.

Final tally was 45-50 quarts over 4 weeks. We gave a bunch away and ended up with 12 quarts in the freezer, 2 quarts of chocolate raspberry jam, 2 quarts of syrup and 1 1/2 quarts of raspberry liqueur (in process). How'd everyone else fair?

Unfortunately, with the rainy spring and summer we had here, spur blight and cane borers have hit the patch pretty bad. I would guess at least 50% of my canes have been hit by borers and at least 75% have some lesions on them. Looks like next year will be a bit more subdued at harvest time.

UV sunlight damage now dinging the blackberries, hoping for some clouds.

What is the approx size of your patch?
I am looking at planting something and having your same "problem"

Raspberries are boring!!! I know I'll be flamed for saying this aloud but I simply find the flavor to be rather plain when compared to other rubi. Neigoons and dewberries have a much more intense flavor, cloudberries are more unique and even a perfect salmonberry from a superior strain is far juicier and has a more unique flavor. I find myself terribly bored on the rare occassion where I have I run out of my wild picked cloudberries and neigoons and have to turn to blackberries and raspberries for inferior substitutes. Keep your raspberry problem and I'll keep my neigoon and cloudberry problem.

Lainerb, I don't think you'll be flamed here for stating a flavor preference. Each to his own. For me, I enjoy intense flavors, as well as more subtle ones. I do have to ask whether you've tried the best tasting varieties of raspberries and blackberries before reaching your conclusion? If you've tried Caroline, Prelude, Anne, Jewel, Marion, Triple Crown, etc. and still think they are boring, then stick with your wild berries.

Lainerb, WHERE are you located? I"d love to find cloudberries, but everywhere I've ever looked says they wont produce except in the climate (cananda, etc where they live in bogs). My mom is Canadian and I grew up with yearly summer visits to her family, where cloudberries, called "bake apples" there were a delicacy, the local kids would pick them and sell them roadside for upward of $20 a gallon.

For the OP, I sure wish I had your problem. I had my mom send me raspberries from her garden, which seem to have not fared well in this heat, clay soil, I also ordered 6 black raspberries online and put them in a big wheelbarrow, they are thriving. but still small and I dont know if they will have berries this year or not.

You should consider selling your berries? post an ad on Craigslist maybe? I bought blackberries from a guy for $8 a gallon and they were nothing special, but I would sure have paid the same for good raspberries!!

djofnelson,

I am of course exaggerating about my opinions on raspberries and blackberries, but I do enjoy tasting other variations on the rubus flavor that wild species do offer. Of the ones you mentioned I have tasted: Anne, Marion and Triple Crown; while quite good if you have ever had the pleasure of eating a neigoon(r.arcticus)then I am sure you would understand my sentiment. Of the raspberries I would have to say I loved Anne the most for it's beautiful yellow color and sweet flavor.

rjinga,

I live in Alaska so there are plenty of muskeg habitats that support the growth of cloudberries, in a good year I can get about 5 gallons of cloudberry from a couple of patches I have located. Neigoon berries are also in abundance in the wetlands along the coast and in addition to thimbleberry and salmonberry there is a wild variety of raspberry but it is not as common.

PS-I almost forgot to mention the existence of what I call a pink cloudberry, it's fruit is a little smaller(it may very from plant to plant and weather conditions) but the leaf structure is identical, the taste is the same and as indicated the fruit is pink! At first I thought it was a trailing raspberry(r.pedatus) but in terms of the plant structure it resembles cloudberry a lot more. Perhaps it is a natural hybrid between the two or just a natural variation on cloudberry or perhaps even another species of rubus that hasn't been described?