The raspberries are completely done now for 2009.  We had a really great haul.  We ate raspberries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the entire month of July and I also froze 7 quarts.

Raspberries are bi-annuals.  So what happens is each plant, or “cane” spends its first year just growing (including sending out underground runners that will become plants next year).  Its second year, it flowers and fruits, then dies.  So our raspberry area, now in its third year, is finally reaching that level of maturity where we have canes in various stages of living and dying, and it looks like one continuous hedge.

On Sunday I decided to get the dying plants that fruited this year out of there so that the new ones would have plenty of time to shore up and get nice and strong for fall/winter.  It took about an hour, and I’m really glad I did it.  There is something really satisfying about this work, even when your arms are covered with scratches afterward.

Here’s Anneke with my brush pile and her butterfly net:

PS I am trying not to be totally depressed about using the word “FALL” in a post heading.