PICKING RASPBERRIES WHEN THEY ARE RIPE

When you go to a store and buy raspberries, they are often quite pale in colour and lacking in taste.  The reason is, I believe, that they are picked (and sold) before they are truly ripe because ripe raspberries do not travel well.  They become soft when ripe, tender, and easily spoiled when piled on top of one another.  That is why raspberries tend to be more expensive in the shop than, say, strawberries because there is an amount of spoiling involved in the packing process.  Something like that.  When my raspberries are in season, in my garden, I like to leave them until the fruit becomes quite dark and then I pick them and eat them the same day or the next day. The flavour of my raspberries then become intense and delicious.  You can tell a raspberry when it is ripe not only by the colour but also because you don't need to pull them firmly to pick them; they should almost drop into your hand with a very gentle pull.  Be careful though, leave them to ripen for too long and you will find them on the ground, squashed. 

Ripe Polka raspberries



The riper my Polka raspberries are, the deeper the colour.  Actually, the same applies to strawberries.  The richer and deeper the red, the more flavoursome I have found them to be. 




I don't have a great deal of success growing strawberries as they are a little bit more fussy about where they do well.  Our summers, here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire, can be a little too 'fresh' for them.  Too cold, too dull, too rainy.  This year, however, we are enjoying a glorious summer in the UK.  It's only early July so long may it last, with some rain just throughout the night would be better still. 




Anyway, about strawberries, when buying them at the supermarket I find that if they are supplied in plastic boxes with holes in the cellophane, and you can actually smell that wonderful strawberry fragrance, then they will deliver on flavour too. 




You know, I had given up on growing strawberries in my garden but one had planted itself in the border and I allowed it to run free.  It wasn't hurting anything.  The strawberry plants, running here and there, act as ground cover, suppressing weeds and so forth.  Now, here and there and all over the place, I am finding little ripe strawberries.  They are obviously happy to have this sunny summer too and they get shelter from the other plants.  My only problem is getting to them without stepping on everything else!