Raspberries! The berry kind.

I was apprehensive about planting raspberries in our backyard. The bushes have thorns, the birds could possibly eat all the berries, and raspberries really aren't my favorite fruit. Hubby was persistent. He told me that he loved hunting for berries when he was growing up in Rhode Island. He said hunting for raspberries and finding a ripe sweet one was a real treat, and that our children would love them.
Well, that sealed the deal. He is much better at knowing the things my children will love when it comes to entertainment or tomfoolery. It also helped that since I did a ton of work for the Three Sisters Garden, the landscape designer ordered extra organic bushes for me and only charged me half price. I received two summer bearing and two fall bearing bushes, two are reds and two are goldens. I had never seen a golden raspberry before and was excited for the fruit to come on.

The bushes were small, but grew quickly. We even got a number of berries the first year (last year), and this year - whoa!! We have at least 20 ripened berries a day. The kids absolutely love picking them off the bush and eating them. They are allowed to pick ripened berries whenever they want, and it is super cute to watch them search for a good mouth popping candidate. I love that they don't fight with each other over the berries (knocking on wood at this moment), both just get mad at Loki when she eats them first. Yes, my dog loves raspberries as well.
I love how excited hubby gets over picking a handful of berries. He'll come in from outside as if he is ten years old all over again with the plump little fruits in his hand. "You wanna try?" he excitedly asks me. Makes me imagine him as a boy wide-eyed finding his first sweet bounty of the season. I see that same wide-eyed look in my kids' eyes when they pick - and it is a really special moment to me. Guess I am glad hubby was so persistent about those raspberries.