Berries A Summer Love Story Area Berries Are Ripe And Ready For The Picking

I’m nuts about berries.

Unlike other fruits that are available year-round, berries are a fleeting pleasure - summer’s sweetest gift.

I first got hooked as a kid in my grandparents’ raspberry patch. When I was sent out to collect berries for dessert, I ate at least as many as I plopped into the bowl. You can tempt me with pies, cobblers, tarts or shortcake, but I still think the best way to savor a berry is straight off the vine.

My career as a strawberry picker was cut short because of this philosophy. During the summer after eighth grade, my flats didn’t fill up as quickly as the rest of the pickers’.

I couldn’t resist sampling the merchandise. To this day, I can recall the dramatic sensation of biting into those sugar-sweet strawberries and having the ruby-red juice trickle down my fingers. It was pure heaven.

But talk about being caught redhanded. I lasted only half a day.

These days, I cultivate my passion in my backyard, where blackberries, raspberries and strawberries provide instant gratification throughout the summer.

I’ve been slicing strawberries over waffles and into pies since

since May. I recently plucked my first few ripe raspberries. In August, there will be blackberry pies and cobblers.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a backyard farmer to enjoy these sweet treats. Throughout the Northwest, it’s prime berry season and a good crop of patches from Green Bluff to North Idaho encourage customers to pick their own.

At Twin Berry Farms, pickers can choose from a dozen different varieties of strawberries including Totem, Rainier, Benton, Kent and Fort Laramie. This two-acre patch in Moyie Springs, just east of Bonners Ferry, is carefully tended by twin sisters, Julie and Tamie Bremer, who stockpile their profits into a college fund.

Julie offered some sage advice for novice pickers.

First, pick early in the morning. “When it gets hot, the berries get soft and mushy,” she said.

Look for shiny, medium-sized berries. Bremer said the biggest berries aren’t always the best: “They look the nicest on shortcake, but the medium-size ones taste the best.”

When picking berries for jams and other recipes, Bremer recommends choosing some of the ever-bearing varieties, which produce fruit throughout the summer. But for eating out of hand, the June-bearing varieties are superior. “They are, by far, the sweetest and juiciest,” she said.

And this summer, because of the mild temperatures and frequent rain in June, the season is extended for June-bearing varieties. Bremer said they should still be available for the next few weeks.

In Green Bluff, while most farmers specialize in strawberries and raspberries, one patch features an exotic berry that is a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry.

Dan and Pat Tompers’ tayberries attract pickers from as far away as Montana and North Idaho.

Dan said he started growing the Scottish-bred berries several years ago on the advice of a Western Washington nursery.

“Someone told me restaurants in Seattle were paying more than $2.25 a pound for them,” Tompers said.

Customers at the Tompers’ U-pick patch will pay a mere 80 cents a pound for the berries.

Unlike strawberries and raspberries, which are sweet right out of the gate, tayberries need to be tucked into a pie or mashed into a jam to bring out their best side.

Tompers describes them as having the sweetness of a raspberry and the tart kick of a blackberry. “Some people like them plain, but most use them in some type of recipe,” he said.

Aside from the obvious pleasures they provide straight off the vine, berries are a cook’s dream. Even the most casual cook can produce impressive desserts with very little effort.

While there are countless variations on shortcakes and pies, here are a few easy recipes that require only a minimal amount of time in the kitchen. Because it’s summer, and there are more interesting places to be.

Painless Blackberry Pie

The only difficulty with this recipe is accepting the compliments for this old-fashioned dessert without revealing how easy it is to make.

Pillsbury All-ready pie crust (in the dairy case)

3 cups blackberries, rinsed and dried

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup flour

Follow the instructions on the box to prepare the crust. Combine the berries, sugar and flour and mix. Pour into the pie crust and place top crust on pie. Seal the edges of the crust and make several slits in the top of the pie. Bake in a 350 degree, pre-heated oven for 45-minutes. Check and continue baking for approximately 15 minutes, until the juice from the pie bubbles through the slits on the top of crust.

Let the pie cool for at least an hour before serving.

Yield: 8 servings.

Shortcut Shortcake

There are countless versions of strawberry shortcake, few which actually use the traditional shortcake. While some people prefer a base of pound cake or angel food cake, I like the neutral flavor of a biscuit. If I have time, I make buttermilk biscuits with Bisquick. But this recipe is even easier because it uses the oversize dinner biscuits available in the dairy case.

One roll of Pillsbury Grands or other oversize biscuits

3 cups of strawberries, rinsed and sliced

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 pint whipping cream, prepared according to the instructions on the container

Bake the biscuits, according to the directions on the container and let cool for 30 minutes. In the meantime, whip the cream. (For best results, chill the bowl and the beaters.) Sprinkle the sugar over the strawberries and let them sit for at least 20 minutes until they start to exude juices. To assemble, split the biscuits, fill the middle with strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream. Place the top on the biscuit and cover with berries and more cream.

Yield: 6 servings.

Super Simple Raspberry Freezer Jam

From Sure-Jell Light Pectin, this easy recipe lets you enjoy the flavors of summer throughout the year.

Four cups of raspberries, rinsed and well-drained

3 1/2 cups sugar

One 1.75-ounce package of Sure-Jell Light pectin

Clean plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Crush berries using a potato masher. Measure sugar into a separate bowl and then mix 1/4 cup sugar with pectin. Gradually add pectin-sugar mixture, stirring vigorously. Let stand for 30 minutes. Gradually stir in remaining sugar, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until sugar has completely dissolved, approximately three minutes. Fill containers quickly and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Jam is ready to serve or freeze. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.

Yield: 6 cups.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: These sidebars appeared with the story: 1. THE BERRY TRUTH Berries might make just a brief appearance each summer, but their mark on history is lasting. Consider this berry trivia: Blackberries are one of the world’s oldest known fruits. They were enjoyed by ancient Greeks, who used them to treat diseases of the throat and mouth and as a preventative against gout. During the Civil War, blackberry tea was thought to be a cure for dysentery. The raspberry, a distant cousin of the rose, grew wild in Europe and was considered a nuisance. Because of that lowly status, it wasn’t until 1830 that raspberries were cultivated in this country. Strawberries are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside. Southern California farmer Walter Knott cultivated the first known boysenberry in the 1930s. The berry’s popularity eventually led to the success that allowed him to build a world-famous theme park bearing his name, Knott’s Berry Farm.

2. WHERE TO GO TO PICK BERRIES Here’s a sampling of U-pick berry patches in the region. Call for directions, prices and picking times: Siemer’s Pick and Pack in Green Bluff, 238-6242. Gibson’s Orchard in Green Bluff, 238-4874. Green Bluff High Country Orchard, 238-4963. Carver Farms in the Spokane Valley, 226-3602. Morris Farms Foothills in the Spokane Valley, 926-1637. Twin Berry Farms in Moyie Springs, Idaho, (208) 267-5988.