Raspberries in October
Freshly picked raspberries in October?? Just as the garden is shutting down for the season, along comes this truly delicious treat for the fruit-lover.
I have a dense row (some twenty feet long and three feet wide) of ‘ever-bearing raspberries’…the offspring of half a dozen plants given to me some four years ago as a much appreciated gift from a friend and fellow-gardener (along with some June-bearing raspberries that I grow on the opposite corner of the vegetable garden).
Just six weeks ago Hurricane Irene whipped through the plants and tore the leaves to shreds. But the immature fruit, clustered at the tops of the canes, miraculously survived. And now, a month later, we are enjoying the ripening fruit each evening.
And I have discovered that the taste of fresh or lightly cooked raspberries combines superbly with the rhubarb sauce I made a few days back. This is a taste combo that is every bit as delicious as the classic strawberry-rhubarb pie.
And ever-bearing raspberries will fruit in the summer too!
Late in the season, ever-bearing raspberries produce a heavy crop of fruit close to the top of this year’s new canes. (Hence they are sometimes called fall raspberries). Iinitially I was told that, to encourage them to produce new canes for next year’s crop, I should cut the entire patch right down to the ground in November.
That certainly works. But with a little research on the Internet I discovered I could induce this year’s canes to fruit again next summer.
Here’s how: in November I will choose the strongest canes and prune them back by one-third. I will then remove all the other canes right to the ground. The canes that I leave to over-winter will then reward me with additional fruit…a secondary crop…borne on side shoots, that will gradually ripen over a period of six weeks in July and August.
While the secondary crop is not as prolific as the fall crop, it certainly fills the gap between the June-bearing raspberries across the garden, and the main fall crop in this bed.
And of course by then, next-year’s new canes—with lots of green leaves—will be dominating the bed. So it takes a bit searching to find the luscious red fruit hiding among the leaves on the shorter stems. But for this raspberry-lover it is definitely worth the effort!
Ever-bearing raspberries for north country gardens
At this latitude (43°) and elevation (1700 feet) our growing season is short. And I find my ever-bearing raspberries are producing their main crop of fruit so late in the season that some of it never ripens before the weather turns really cold.
The solution to this problem is to look for a variety where the main crop ripens a bit earlier. After checking the University of Maine website I plan to start a new raspberry bed in yet another corner of the vegetable garden with an ever-bearing raspberry called Autumn Bliss that should produce its main crop in September.
And after all one can never have too many raspberries in the garden!