Picking Raspberries, Currants, and Gooseberries at My Farm

June 25, 2024

Picking Raspberries, Currants, and Gooseberries at My Farm

It's berry-picking time here at my Bedford, New York farm and I have an abundance of these small summer fruits just waiting to be harvested.

I grow many berries - I love sharing them with family and friends, and freezing them for use all year long. Behind my main greenhouse are bushes of raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and currants. All of them are delicious eaten raw at the peak of ripeness, but can also be used for making jams, jellies, and other desserts. Yesterday, I along with my housekeepers, picked several trays and boxes of wonderful raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and pink champagne colored currants.

Enjoy these photos.

: This is a great year for all my berries. And they are ready right on schedule. These fruits typically start ripening in late June into July.

: I have several rows of raspberry bushes. Summer-bearing raspberry bushes produce one crop each season that lasts about one month.

: One plant can produce several hundred berries in a season. Raspberries are vigorous growers and will produce runners that fill up a bed.

: Once raspberries are picked, they stop ripening, so under-ripe berries that are harvested will never mature to the maximum sweetness. Only ripe raspberries will come right off the stem. The black raspberry plant is a high producing early variety whose upright growth makes it easy for picking.

: Here, only one raspberry is ready; the rest need more time. The berries will ripen gradually throughout the summer, so it’s important to check the crop every few days.

: This all-purpose fruit is firm, sweet, and full of flavor. It tastes great eaten fresh off the stem or made into preserves.

: The raspberry is made up of small “drupe” fruits which are arranged in a circular fashion around a hollow central cavity. Each drupelet features a juicy pulp with a single seed.

: The raspberry plant has spade-shaped leaves that are toothed along the edges. My bushes are several years old and remain so healthy. It takes about two to three years for a new raspberry plant to produce a significant crop of fruit.

: But most raspberry plants also have small thorns, or prickles, along their stems and canes – they are part of the rose family.

: My tip for freezing is to place a layer of berries onto a baking sheet and freeze them until they are solid, then transfer them into plastic bags or containers, so they store easily back in the freezer.

: Here’s Enma picking a tray of black raspberries. I like to pick early in the morning before it gets too warm. There are more than 200-species of raspberries. In the United States, about 90-percent of all raspberries sold come from the states of Washington, California, and Oregon.

: This is a tray of red raspberries. These must be picked and handled very carefully as they are very delicate. They should also be checked for insects – they love them.

: This year, I also have blackberry bushes. This is one of the fruits. The blackberry is packed with vitamins C, K, and E, rich in dietary fiber, and low in sugar. Blackberries are juicy and delicious eaten raw. I can’t wait to pick more.

: Some of the gooseberries are also ready. The gooseberries in my garden include ‘Pixwell’, ‘Invicta’, and ‘Hinnonmaki Red’.

: Gooseberries are native to Europe, northwest Africa, and all regions of Asia except for the north. Gooseberries grow best in areas with cold, freezing winters and humid summers.

: The color of gooseberries depends on the variety. It can range from red and purple to yellow and green.

: Gooseberries are not difficult to pick, but the stems are thorny, so care must be taken when harvesting the fruits.

: Here are some of the clustered currants. I grow white, red, pink, and black currant varieties. These ‘Pink Champagne’ currants are pendant clusters of fruits the color of champagne blushed with pink. These currants are less tart than the red and among the sweetest of all currants.

: White currants are sweet and tart with floral undertones. Although the fruits are the primary source of food from the plant, the leaves, and tender, young shoots are also edible.

: Currants are still largely unknown here in the United States. They are well-loved in many other countries, and here in the US, they are slowly gaining popularity, especially because of the high antioxidant content. They are now more prevalent at local farms and home gardens.