Fruit is abundant at this time of year and while a wide selection of the tasty morsels sit waiting for buyers at the grocery store, many area residents probably would contend nothing beats berries fresh off the vine.
With berry-picking season ultimately comes jam time–getting those ice cream pails full of just-picked berries into the mason jars with sugar and Certo.
For local resident and berry-lover Dianna Whalen, making jam has been high priority these past few days since she and two of her children brought home several pails of raspberries from Shute’s Berry Farm south of Devlin.
“I’ve had orders from headquarters for my jam,” mused Whalen of her husband Dave’s love of the preserves.
But while Whalen has been making strawberry and raspberry jam on and off for the past 16 years, this was the first time she had taken on raspberry picking to such a degree.
She and daughters Britainee, 13, and Ashley, 11, spent more than two hours combing the ripe patch Friday morning.
“That’s the first time I’ve picked that major an amount. It’s a lot harder than picking strawberries,” Whalen remarked Monday evening as the jam-making got underway on her kitchen stove.
“We planned to pick eight [pails] but we were pretty much bushed by six,” she laughed. “We all helped lots for that last pail. We were tired but it was a lot of fun.”
While many of the berry farm’s customers do pick for themselves, the percentage of customers who want the task done ahead of time is significant, said Bonnie Shute.
“Many of my customers want berries picked for them,” she noted. “A lot of women work now and don’t have the time to come and pick, [and] many of my customers are older people who can’t do a lot of picking.
“But then, I had a couple of elderly women here the other day who brought their lawn chairs and moved them along as they picked,” she continued. “I guess there’s a way of getting around everything.”
Whalen, who faithfully follows the jam recipes which come in the Certo box, doesn’t strain the pulp to remove the seeds from the mix–and said she has no intention of starting to.
Many jars of her homemade jam are given away to family and friends, and no one has a claim against the cook yet.
“They say you can sieve them out but nobody has ever complained about the seeds. And whoever does doesn’t have to eat it,” she chuckled.
Leaving the raspberry pulp as is was a sentiment shared by avid berry-picker Eileen Dunnet, who also was in Shute’s berry patch alongside husband, Bill, last Friday.
The retired couple, who live on Factor Lake near Atikokan, make a special trip here each summer to pick berries, with a long list of recipes waiting back home on the kitchen counter.
“We picked four ice cream buckets this year and last,” she said. “I made jam as soon as I got home, and we had some fresh on our [breakfast] cereal and for supper.
“And I plan on making pie,” she added.
“I also make plain cheesecake and drizzle some raspberry juice on top [along] with fresh raspberries and Cool Whip–that’s really good!” she enthused.
“You can’t buy a jar like that in the store for under $5,” argued Whalen, stressing the berry picking and jam-making were positive from the get-go.
She also said the time spent in the berry patch with her children was a significant part of the process.
“It was a quiet time for us and I think it was more a time of encouragement than anything else,” she reflected. “We were checking out each other’s buckets and saying, ‘Oh good for you, keep on going.’”
“People come here with a friend and stand on either side of the row picking berries. There’s quite a murmur of chit-chat going on sometimes,” agreed Shute.
“And once I’m done making the jam, the kids will say ‘Can I put it away,’” Whalen gestured, pointing to the computerized jam labels made by the girls.
“It’s fun and it’s very gratifying,” she said.
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