Ruby Red Raspberries

After my cherry picking excursion, I decided I better pick a few raspberries at the U-pick farm. The county fair is coming up next month and my daughter signed up to enter raspberry jam.

One of the really nice benefits to living in the country is the trust factor. I was busy picking raspberries when the farm lady called over to me that she was going home and I could just weigh my berries and leave the money in the box. Not only did she trust me to leave payment, she also left plenty of money to make change with in the box. There are also a couple of other self-serve farms in the area where you can pick up frozen meat and milk. They just leave the meat and ice cream in the freezers and milk and cheese in the refrigerator for you to help yourself to. You drop the money in the box and write down what you bought. So simple, so trusting. Country living.

I picked enough berries for my daughter and I to make four pints of jam and I used four cups to make Mary Ostyn'sRaspberry-Buttermilk Cake.
It turned out beautiful, but I have to admit to a terrible mistake. The recipe calls for the zest of two limes. I don't own a zester and never have much luck using a grater. I thought I could use a vegetable peeler and then chop it small with a knife. Don't try it! I think I peeled too thick and although the zesty taste was great, the chewy chunks were bad. Horrid. It didn't ruin the cake, per se, you just have to spit out the little pieces as you go. I won't serve it to guests this time around!



The jam turned out lovely anyway. She should get a blue ribbon for sure!



I, on the other hand, am entering Dilly Beans. Kind of boring, but someone gave me a generous bag of green beans last week that needed to be "put up" quick.

I'm also going to enter cinnamon rolls. You only have to give them a plate of four, so we can eat the rest of them while we are camping out at the horse barn. Ugh! Another story for next month. Last year, my daughter made Angel Food Cake and we ate that while laying there looking up at the tent roof! It was well worth it.

Cherry Pie

It's haying season again! We've been up at the neighbor's farm helping bale hay and load up the barn the last couple of weeks. To be quite honest, the guys have been haying and my daughter and I help milk the sheep and babysit the new baby.


I was invited to pick all of the pie cherries I wanted before the birds got to them. I ended up with a small bucketful and I gave half to another neighbor friend. They were pretty small cherries, so you could just squeeze them and pop out the pits. After pitting about half of them, my daughter took pity on me and helped pit the rest. We made one beautiful pie and froze the rest for another pie later this year. I wanted to take a picture of the whole pie, but my husband left the camera at work and I only had one piece left to display for you. It was really, really tasty! I am a little scratched up from the underbrush and branches. At least I didn't fall off the ladder! I really dislike ladders.

Cherry pie is so easy to make. I used the Lattice Cherry Pie recipe in the red and white checkered BHG cookbook.