The Black Raspberry Patch

The black raspberries are ripening. This is our favorite crop we grow on our farm. I grew up picking these in the wild with my grandmother from the time I was big enough to carry a bowl. She was a dedicated picker and pie maker. We picked a lot of black raspberries together, and they have always been my favorite berry. When my kids were young I would take them with me picking in the old patches that my grandmother and I picked, and when we finally bought our farm, I planted our own patches.

At first the plants didn't produce much, but now we have so many black raspberries in patches around the farm, that we really struggle to pick them all. We are still finishing up last years frozen berries in pie form, and this year's crop is coming in strong.

We also have about 30 blueberry bushes that are starting to produce a good bit now, but the birds compete with us for the blueberries more than the raspberries. The birds do eat some black raspberries, but there are so many of them that we still have more than we need.

The thing I like about the black raspberry patches is that every member of our family just goes out to the gardens whenever they like, and they eat as much as they like for about 3 weeks, and in spite of all of the eating, we still froze about 100 quarts for pies last summer.

Now the 100 quarts also includes the red raspberries that come in right as the black raspberries are finished, and they last for about another three weeks, but we don't have as many of the red raspberries as the black ones.

And finally when the red and black raspberries are finished we have some patches of wild blackberries that we pick. These are the only ones that can survive the deer around here without a fence around them. Their thorns are terrible, and for some reason the deer do not eat the new growth on the blackberries like they do with the raspberries.

We planted the beginnings of a new patch today in an area we fenced in for gardening this spring. The berries around here generally will replace themselves each year, and spread into as big an area as you will give them. They require no pesticides or fertilizers, at least in our area of Pennsylvania, and the only maintenence on them is pruning. The black raspberries need a winter and a summer pruning, and the reds require only the winter pruning.

Well I am going to close for now. Hopefully I will be picking some berries tomorrow. I am going to put a few links here to my pruning videos from my YouTube channel so you can see some of our patches if you like.
Jim

Summertime Pruning of Black Raspberries

Winter Pruning of Black Raspberries