Berry Abundant

How would you like to be able to pick a big bowl full of berries every day for a few weeks of the year, for free, just by taking a walk around your yard?
Or go to a local farm and pick berries from your berry CSA, enough to come home and freeze up some for winter, after you have stuffed yourself on their juicy goodness?

And how would you like to be able to make this for dinner after the first strawberry picking of the season (this appears to be becoming a tradition)?

I would! And I am so blessed to be able to do so.

Feeling abundant and wanting to share, I am going to give you my recipe, just developed this week, for black raspberry ice cream. It is actually a bit sherbet-like, with more fruit than cream, so if you like the tart-sweet of berries, you are going to love this!

Black Raspberry Ice Cream

1 cup black raspberry puree (you will need over two cups of berries to get this amount of puree- just press them through a strainer and compost/feed to the chickens or pigs/discard the seeds)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup cream

1 cup milk

1/8 tsp citric acid

Mix all ingredients together and freeze in an ice cream maker, straining the mixture as you pour it into the machine. I do this to get those few seeds that find their way through the strainer and any lumpy bits of egg out. Makes a generous quart of ice cream.

You could substitute red raspberries, or even frozen berries for fresh if you have to. The citric acid is key to a good tart-sweet effect, but you could probably substitute lemon juice, if you can't find any citric acid. Maybe a couple teaspoons of juice. Taste as you add it to see if you like it, before freezing. Remember that sweet is tempered by cold, so it will taste sweeter in custard form than it does in ice cream form.

Let me know if you try it and what you think!

Oh, I forgot to say that instead of composting the seeds, after you strain the puree, make raspberry lemonade. Just add a quart or so of water to them and stir until all the juice is off the seeds and in the water. Strain out the seeds and add some sugar and lemon juice to taste. Plop in a few ice cubes and enjoy!