07/18/2024
Story and photos by Derek Doeffinger
“Show me your tongue.”
Those are the words I always fear hearing when out picking berries–caught in the act. What’s different this year is that for the first time the color of my tongue has changed throughout the day. It started out red, then an hour later turned a brilliant purple, and before that hour was over a sparkling blue.
I’m not sure you know what the purple is. However, the other colors occurred on the same day because this year presented an unusual overlap of ripe raspberries and ripe blueberries. And I’m not the type who can resist snacking as I pick. I actually consider it a good picking practice, especially with raspberries. I take my berries home and eat them over the next few days, which means my picking style varies a bit from those who freeze them for future pies, jams, and preserves.
For me, ripe, ready-to-eat raspberries shouldn’t be picked. And double that for overripe raspberries, whose presence in a pint can quickly lead to spoilage of the whole day’s work. But in the field, overripe raspberries that almost leap into your palm when touched are committing a sort of berry death leap. I willingly accommodate them.
Supposedly, raspberries don’t ripen after picking but they do mush up a bit. So I pick slightly unripe ones that require a little more tug off the cane. At home, we put them on cookie sheets and place them in the refrigerator to extend their life. We hold off on washing them until grabbing a handful to eat.
The purple tongue came from a delightful discovery: a berry farm with rows of black raspberries–my favorite. In past years, I always had to visit secret patches discovered during bike rides. Wild patches seldom yielded more than a pint or two during the season.
The challenge with black raspberries are the thickets of thorns that must be breached for any berries not dancing atop their canes. My forearms and legs bear their scars.
The last field for the day’s outing was full of gentle and loving blueberries. They bore no grudge and threatened only the digestive system because their sweet abundance proved irresistible.
Derek Doeffinger spent a few decades at Kodak explaining how people can take better pictures and then encouraging them to use Kodak products — especially digital cameras. That last part didn’t quite work out. Fortunately during his Kodak days he became an obsessed outdoor photographer, especially of Finger Lakes waterfalls. He’s written several photos books about the Finger Lakes and digital photography, and now has written quite a few articles for Life in the Finger Lakes.
