Black Raspberry Season is Here!

I've eaten my first half-dozen black raspberries of the year. I'm always surprised by how loaded with flavor these berries are, compared to raspberries from store. 

This reminds me of the wild patch we used to forage from when we lived in Illinois. The berries there grew in a thicket along a black-top bike trail, with no other maintainance than the deer and bikers would give then in a brief pass. But we would go home with 5 or 6 quarts each visit, which most years was at least a couple. And each time, we were never alone. There were always new people there filling bags and tupperware containers full of some of the best raspberries I've ever eaten. More-over, we'd always pick some elderflowers for fritters, to have with some raspberry syrup! Later in the year, it was the elderberries themselves. Not to mention the mulberries growing over the black raspberries....

I've read many times that a "low input, high output" food system is an un-achievable "holy grail" of agriculture. We can use lots of inputs, fossil fuels, labor, fertilizer... and get a big yield back. Or, we can use few inputs, and get little back. But, they say that low input, high output is impossible! 

And here we had a NO INPUT high output system... just waiting for anyone who passed by...

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