The Joys of Foraged Goods

If you've wandered over to our other blogs (thefloatingempire.com or Life, Art Water) you'll know we love eating local and we do a bit of foraging when we can.  Here is one of our wonderful recent scores:

oh, yesssss

These are wild black raspberries.  You'll never find these in any store.  They're only ripe for about two days, are fragile, and have to be hand picked.  If you want to see some shots of us acquiring these, drop over to Morgainne's blog Life, Art, Water for some pictures.  They're a beautiful, juicy, sweet and tart flavor bomb.  In short, they rock.

We could make a jam out of them, or a fruit compote, but when you have something this fresh and delightful,  I rather think it's better to let them stand on their own.  So they became dessert, real vanilla ice cream, frozen and shaved dark chocolate, and the wonderful, wonderful berries.

Yes, it was EXACTLY as good as it looks.

The treat is all the better for being seasonal and rare, a sense of anticipation and treasure found that we've lost in our rather bland consumer world of instant gratification.

Ooooh, Ice Cream Headache.

So look around, guys.  Everywhere on the planet--well virtually anyway--every spring and summer there are treats to be found a few feet from your door, things no grocery will ever see, things most of your neighbors ignore or try to weed out.  Enjoy!

M