Not long ago I posted a picture on Instagram of the raspberries I had just picked from my garden. 
After the picture was posted I had several people ask me questions about my raspberries.
I thought I’d answer them and then give you a recipe for a cake I made.
Kramer and I planted four raspberry plants along the back of our garage about four years ago. We planted some asparagus on one end and horseradish on the other.
It’s all the “ugly” things that we like but make the garden look not so great. This is the west side of the building.
Raspberries are just not pretty plants. They are hard to weed and spread. I don’t love them for that…but I do love the berries. So putting them on the backside of the garage was a perfect place for them. They are hidden from the front of the house and only visible from the alley behind the house.
The raspberries have been prolific this year. I thought they wouldn’t be as Karl cut them way back last fall when Buck, Karl, and Craig shingled my garage. Then this spring they got trampled again when the garage got sided…but nope. This year they have produced more than ever.
I picked what you saw in the first picture along with three more of those containers. I picked the half-gallon you see in the picture above and I have another half-gallon or more that needs to be picked.
I’m thinking there will be another batch to pick next week too. Previously I had only picked about a half-gallon altogether. This was their year!!
I’ve never really worried about how to use raspberries before but this year I’ve had to. I shared a recipe for Chocolate Chip Raspberry Cupcakes on Saturday. Find the recipe HERE if you missed it.
On this day I tried my Blueberry Zucchini Cake only put raspberries in instead. You can find the recipe HERE.
The kids were so happy to have cake for a snack. Typically I’m a little better at serving them something more healthy, but I figured they helped pick the raspberries so this was a great way for rewarding them.
Here is Carver anticipating his first bite.
I really liked the cake. It’s a moist dense cake almost like a banana bread texture only moister. It is tart so you might want to serve ice cream with it.
Feel free to pass some more raspberry recipes my way. I think I might need them.
LOVE garden berries. We have blackberries. When I have enough low-sugar jam for the year, I freeze the rest. Great over yogurt for breakfast and in muffins or a blackberry crumble. NEVER too much fruit
And the perfect place for your patch!
Lots of berries! They look delicious as does the cake. Just curious. How do you use horseradish? That isn’t anything that most gardens around me have.
When Kramer was living we pressured it. It’s a root crops so digging, peeling, grinding and canning. I don’t do it anymore as I’m not crazy about it like he was.
I love raspberries but we had terrible heat this June that pretty much dried up all the berries. No berries this year. I usually go do a you pick so the rows are nicely trained on wire. The cane is cut back every winter so they produce well every summer. Years ago my brother worked on the winter crew so he learned how to cut them back. He was usually row boss in the summer. As a kid picking berries for clothes money I hated working and being bossed by my brother.