Make it: with berries

i like to tinker, reinvent, make stuff as i said here and i know my crafty ways are really, really appreciated. In fact my bro, the cheeky little bugger, in his recent thank-you card just couldn't say enough about it,

"i love the web cam you sent me for my birthday but really sis i am sorta disappointed you didn't make something with your own bare hands this year. i'm really longing for one of your fine dust collectables, a piece of structurally sound pottery, a mixed compilation of heavy estrogen or some of that everlasting, homemade soap you do so fine."

Oh don't you worry little lad, i've been busy whittling you and the fam a canoe out of the beachwood the G and I have been collecting for the past two summers and just haven't had time to find the right size box to send it in.

Aside from building water crafts from scratch, i also like to tinker with recipes. i get an ingredient in my head and the gerbil wheel in my brain starts a spinning. Right now its berries 'cause in our backyard they are bloomin', kickin', and squealin', those raspberry stalks heavy after birthing some of the brightest and most succulent babes this season. Yup, even better than last summer's crop and we remember those little guys fondly since we spent many days sprinkling them over our breakfast cereal while chanting Bruce Degen's ever popular Jamberry.

one berry two berry pick me a blueberry. Three berry four berry pick me a strawberry. raspberry jazzberry razzamatazzberry berryband merryband jamming in Berryland.

I'd love to say that i've baked a dozen raspberry pies by now but truth be told my pies end up looking like the rippled valley of my stomach when I'm sucking it in and probably taste like one too. Too bad 'cause i've been itchin' to dust up my hands with flour and make me some of Bossy's strawberry rhubarb pie or stain my fingers purple with OTJ's blackberry dumplings recipe.

Keep it simple stupid, you might say, perhaps a slow stewing jam is in order. And then a nice neighborly surprise appeared on my porch, some of Ally's own homemade goodness, strawberry heaven, heaped in one of those jars that brought me back to my peach canning days with my grandma. Lets just say I've decided that its best we savor hers for the moment because I'd like there to be enough time in between so that when I make my version the Docta will forget the lip smacking tang that just sings in Ally's spread.

In the end I've decided to experiment with making my first bottle of raspberry wine. I was inspired by a recipe I found while thumbing through my new favorite magazine called Craft. The author calls his concoction, "One Week Wine" because he made and drank many versions of it while biking through Greece, how romantic huh. Check out his bare bones recipe here.

As we speak my little worker bee is out in the garden now picking or should i say eating the 1/2 gallon of fruit that this recipe requires. The good news is that if raspberries aren't your thang, according to the author, any berry will do. So get going and in a week's time we can all raise our glasses in a virutal toast to summer. clink. clink. In Seattle nothing's finer and worth that long, rainy wait. Now excuse me while I get back to whittling that canoe I've promised, don't wanna give anyone the impresson that us teachers just lay around all summer or anything....