It’s a raspberry round-up y’all! I seem to have really missed the window for raspberries this summer – these seasonal fruits give me a little bit of stress, to be honest. When I went to the farmer’s market about a month ago, they were everywhere, but last week, not a raspberry in sight. I really need to get my growing seasons organized. Anyway, with the ones I brought home, I made Raspberry Jam, following the same method as June’s Strawberry Jam, and it was heavenly. There’s only one extra step which is to strain the jam after cooking to get most of the seeds out (I left some in). Both Danielle and Kristine’s cousin Leianne have used the same method with great success, and have even used blueberries, which I am going to do soon.

When I was in Ottawa a few weeks ago visiting with Kathleen and Brooke, Kathleen didn’t believe me that I could make jam so quickly. We had brought home a huge flat of raspberries from the Byward Market (AMAZING, and you get to practise your French with a lot of the vendors –  framboise s’il-vous plait?), and I had the jam ready in under half an hour, just using about a cup of sugar because the berries were quite tart. The next morning, Kathleen made some scones and whipped some cream, and what you see above is what I ate for breakfast when I wandered downstairs at 9am (Katy has a six-month-old – apparently you get a lot accomplished when you’re up at 5am).

Meanwhile, back at home, I used the rest of my berries in some lacklustre Raspberry Scones  that I ended up bringing to work. Can’t really put my finger on why I didn’t like these. Too doughy or something. I don’t think they highlighted the raspberries to their full capabilities.

Finally, I used some of my jam in these Raspberry Jam Muffins, which I baked while I waited for my bedroom furniture to be delivered last month. I also used some frozen raspberries as I was on a clean-out-the-freezer mission. They were great, and extra special because of the homemade jam inside. But let’s keep it real, they are just cake in muffin formation. My crumble topping wasn’t the best, I don’t think there was enough butter. Onward to blueberries and peaches!