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When we first moved into our present house, we were thrilled to find the field-row behind us was loaded with black raspberry bushes, including some rare (I think) albino varieties (actually, a peachy color when ripe). Sadly, the whole row got knocked out when the farmer spread herbicide one year. The wind just happened to be moving the wrong way for the berries. A few bushes survived, but it will be a long time before it’s worth picking back there again.
This year, we found that our nearest neighbor has a good number of bushes along his property. It didn’t take me long to ask permission to pick. Happily, it looks like we’ll get a good crop out of it. Woo Hoo! Black raspberry jam!
It occured to me as I was picking last night how raspberries teach us something about God’s dealings with us. I’ve mentioned this idea briefly in a previous post, but it took on a new meaning for me while I was fighting the thorns to get berries.
Anyone who picks raspberries, especially black raspberries, must be willing to put up with thorn scratches, pricks and poison ivy. Those things are all part of the curse God imposed on creation after Adam & Eve’s sin in Eden (Gen. 3:17-18). But the berries are sweet and highly nutritious. There are blessings in between the thorns. There is hope, even in the midst of an awful curse. God placed the thorns here as a judgment, He made certain thorny plants bear fruit so that the curse might not be entirely unbearable.
But there is more. In berry picking, you quickly learn that often ripe berries are hidden just out of sight. You may have to move foliage, push through a bramble patch, or wiggle your way behind the bush to get at the unseen fruit. If you stop picking without really getting into the brambles, you’ll miss the greater quantity of berries.
So it is with Scripture in this sin-cursed world. If you stop seeking when you’ve gathered the more obvious truths, you’ll miss the greater quantity of truth hiding just beneath. Such seeking means being willing to put up with scratches, itches, splinters, bugs, spiders and whatever else lives in berry patches and commentaries. Such seeking will be uncomfortable and annoying. But once you’ve tasted that jam spread over mid-winter toast, the unpleasantness fades and only the blessing remains. I suspect Heaven will give us much the same perspective.
Found a nice patch of morels the other day at Mike’s place. The largest one in this pic is about 5″. Unfortunately, it’s all I found on a 2 hour trek. Still, a great day to be in the woods. Lord willing, there will be more to find this year.
You know it’s spring when the ‘shrooms start a’poppin’! I shot this in the backyard this morning — nice little yellow. Give it a week and it’ll get huge (I hope). Now if I could just sneak out into the back woods…
update: we managed to get back into the woods a couple of times after I made this post. Found one other shroom, but it was very dry. I’m amazed it came up at all. If we get some rain, things should start popp’n.
One of the tasks that defaults to me as a SAHD is not only cooking, but canning in season. Karen loves doing it herself, but the realities of twins and a full work-week don’t always allow it, so it becomes a dad thing. I’m not sure how much money (if any) we save in canning our own veggies, jams, and fruit, but it sure tastes better than the store-bought stuff, especially in late January!
That being said, I have a thing for dill pickles. I’m completely uncertain why sweet pickles exist, but dill pickles are obviously a direct boon from God. I’m certain of this because although dills are not mentioned in Scripture (gotta be an OT scribal error), our Jewish friends (i.e., God’s chosen people) proclaim dills kosher, but not sweets. 
Ok, so the theological basis is weak. I like dills and we have a bunch of cucumbers this year. So I’m trying pickling for myself. I only hope they’re edible in a couple weeks.
I’m not brave enough to try the full-out dills where they have to ferment in brine for 6 weeks (and I have to skim the scum daily), so it’s fresh-pack for me. The recipe my mother-in-law recommended calls for grape leaves. Never having seen a grape leaf in a dill pickle jar, I naturally turned to Google for clarification. And I found:
I have an old recipe that calls for adding a grape leaf to each jar of pickles. Why?
Grape leaves contain a substance that inhibits the enzymes that make pickles soft. However, removing the blossom ends (the source of undesirable enzymes) will make the addition of grape leaves unnecessary.
(from The National Center for Food Preservation FAQ)
So there you go – now you know I like dill pickles and why you don’t find grape leaves in pickle jars. Glad you read this post?
update: 9/16/04
Pickles turned out very salty. I must have mis-measured something. Ah, well. Plenty of cukes out there this year, so I’ll try again.
