It's summer in Minnesota, and my raspberry canes are slathered with berries, both red and black. They're ripening now as fast as we can pick them. What a joy to walk out the front door and follow the little garden path to the raspberry patch.
A few years ago, when my canes had spread like ruby wildfire, I sketched out a model for a pyramidical trellis and asked my husband to build a couple for me. He did, and they make my berry-picking life much easier. Once my berries are done for the season, I'll cut back this year's berry-producing canes, leaving the non-producing canes to continue growing and gathering their photosynthetic power! Those canes will be tied up to the trellises and left alone. Next spring, those will be the canes that produce berries, while all the fresh upstarts will grow beneath, gathering steam and bioligical maturity for the following season. And so the berry cycle goes.
As for me and mine, we love all that those scratchy canes (they're related to roses, you see) have to offer. The dried leaves make a lovely tea that soothes the gallbladder meridian and tonifies smooth muscle tissue (like the uterus, making raspberry leaf tea a staple for pregnant women for generations!). What berries we don't stuff right in our greedy mouths while picking end up in fruit salads, on fresh-baked tarts, sugared up and spooned over ice cream or yogurt, smooshed into smoothies, baked into pies (One of my favorites is a mixed berry pie baked with balsamic vinegar and basil! Trust me...).
Today's berries were baked into these lovely little gluten-free raspberry scones.
To make them, I combined Bob's Red Mill All-Purpse Gluten-Free Baking Flour blend with some tapicoa flour. In I tossed salt, sugar, baking powder and xanthan gum. I cut in some butter, just as if I were making a pie crust. Then I added heavy cream until I had a proper dough. In went the fresh berries. The whole purply mess went out onto a board, upon which I patted the dough out flat, mayber an inch thick. I cut the dough with a pie server, then set my soon-to-be scones on buttered baking sheets. After chilling them for an hour, I sprinkled them with more raw cane sugar, popped them in the oven and waited until they smelled delicious and their edges were beginning to brown.
Big, big, yummy, thanks to the raspberry patch!
--Sheila
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