I love eating raspberries right off the bush.
But seriously, when there are THIS many raspberries to pick? Things get a little crazy. Lucy is a super raspberry picker, but raspberries don't keep, and we don't have much freezer space, so we have to eat them right away . . . or make jam. This year, lots and lots of jam.
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| Three batches of jam, from a single harvest of raspberries. |
Last Sunday, as I was making my tenth (tenth!) batch of jam. I started to panic. Lucy announced that we had ninety-five jars of jam. We don't eat a lot of jam, so we mostly give it away. But I don't know enough people to go through this much jam, and the raspberry bushes are still loaded. But my entrepreneurial daughter had a plan.
Sell jam at the Farmer's Market!
The kids have begged me and begged me to let them do a lemonade stand. I have explained and explained that we live on a dirt road and most of our traffic are runners, who don't tend to carry wallets. But the town's Tuesday afternoon farmer's market would be a perfect place for the kids to set up a little stand, and I could offload some raspberry jam in the process! They made a poster, Lucy made her famous cupcakes and Gavin mixed a double batch of brownies, and we headed off to the market with our goodies.
Now really, who could resist opening their wallets for these two salesmen? They were naturals, saying hello to everyone who passed and offering them a sample. (They made sure I was far away, watching from the other end of the market.) Lots of little old ladies went home with brownies and jars of hand-picked-raspberry jam. The kids made $50, which they split between them for spending money for our upcoming vacation. They LOVED it, which means I'm probably going to be spending more time this summer making jam. . .
