Wild About - Mountain Raspberries

Oh, what a beautiful sight. When I was out hiking the other day, I stumbled upon more ripe raspberries (Rubus idaeus var. strigosus) than I've ever seen in the mountains in one place, at one time. With a little work, I was able to get about half of a sandwich bag full of berries, which is an amazing haul for the berries that grow in the mountains here. Where I live, at lower altitude, berry season was over more than a month ago, but the peak of summer is just hitting in the mountains, which meant a food jackpot for me.

And let's get this straight, these are berries grown at high altitude, in strong bright light and clean mountain air. Their flavor is so concentrated and yummy that they taste like the distillation of sunshine itself. These beauties were nearly as big as commercial berries, too, which is unusual. But let me tell ya, the taste will never compare. These berries are actually less tart than store-bought berries, but also more complex, hitting all sorts of floral and fruit notes.

When you've got a food this special, this tasty, the only was to serve it is simply. After a little debate over whether to serve the berries with straight heavy cream or vanilla ice cream, the ice cream won out. So I sprinkled my prized berries with a spoonful of vanilla sugar, and left them to macerate for a bit before blessing the ice cream. It was the finest example of red raspberries I've ever tasted.

You can see the full story of my year foraging here.

This post is appearing as a part of Real Food Wednesday. Click the link and find more recipes by cooks who are passionate about real and traditional foods.