When you're engulfed by berries

 As a teenager, I spent two summers working at a berry farm about 10 km from the provincial New Zealand city where I lived. I'd wake up when it was still dark and cycle to the farm, where I'd spend several hours each day picking raspberries for the princely sum of NZ $0.24 per pound. (NZ had long since adopted metric measurements; I don't know why we were paid by the pound!) It wasn't a lucrative job. I think I took home about $45 in my best week ever. Still, part of that was down to the fact that I ate a lot of raspberries (rather than putting them all in my bucket) and the job had other benefits: it got me out of the house, I got plenty of exercise cycling 20 km each day, and it was outdoors in a beautiful place. People said I'd hate raspberries by the end, but I never have … berry plants (whether strawberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, youngberries, blueberries …) are key features in our back yard.

Right now, our elderly strawberry plants are (surprisingly) producing handfuls of delicious fruit each day. I mostly just eat them, but if you're feeling more adventurous you could whip up some home made strawberry ice cream:

250 grams fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon gelatine (or 1 gelatine 'leaf') *
1.5 cups cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water

Slice strawberries and sprinkle with sugar. Place in the fridge for one hour or until the juice runs from the strawberries. Soak the gelatine in cold water and drain the strawberry juice into this. Stand bowl over hot water and stir until gelatine dissolved. Add strawberries. Chill until starting to set. Whip cream, fold strawberry mixture into cream, and freeze until firm. Allow to soften for a few minutes before eating.

* gelatine [gelatin] is an animal product so not suitable for vegetarians. You could use agar-agar instead, but I haven't experimented with it, in this recipe, so can't comment on how the exchange would work.

We also have heaps of other berry bushes. A wise friend advised us to put them in edged, raised garden beds and that was excellent advice as they do tend to escape! Our berry bushes have grown so large lately that the labels I placed next to them have become buried in foliage and I can't remember what is where, in some cases. Oops.

On the left, gooseberries, and on the right, blueberries.

Other mystery berries in between …

Similarly, raspberries on the left and I don't know

what on the right. Pretty pink flowers, in case that helps …?

Ah well. Whatever berries appear, they'll be much appreciated!