Picking Flowers and Berries on Cheryl's 14 Mile Run.

Wildflowers Of Iowa...arranged By Cheryl.

Today has been a wonderful day thus far.   First it started off with a gentle rain that quit the moment we began our run.  The clouds kept the sun away and the rain cooled the area to a pleasant 63 degrees. Perfect running weather!  (well,  compared to what we have had this summer so far.)

As we trotted and biked down the usual path,   Cheryl has been searching for various flowers to add a little color and life to our drab scoring table at work.  In addition,  any left overs get the glory of beautifying our coffee table at home.   For this reason,  Cheryl has been sending us out to the trail mid-week one a mission to find more color.

And then it happened....

End of the Mulberry Season...

Begin Wild Black Raspberries!

Instead of flowers,  we found berries!  The Mulberries are almost finished here,  however, the black raspberries are out in full swing!   We stumbled upon a guy picking buckets of them last week....upon closer inspection, we discovered that he had not even made a dent in the stockpile.   There are LOTS of black raspberries out there!   (  We used to call them "black caps" because they have no stem when you pick them...and kind of look like a stocking cap or helmet.  Perhaps it was just a local thing passed down from various family members.)

Red Domestic Raspberries ( In store)

Well,   Cheryl discovered that she LOVES these things...  no surprise because she really enjoys the red raspberries they sell at HyVee.  These guys taste sweeter and are fun to pick.  I told her about the "white" version.... not really white, but rather they are an orange color and taste somewhere between the black and red versions.

Orange (white?) Raspberries!

And then we found them!    In the middle of the run today,  we found and entire section of these guys.   Cheryl stopped in the middle and forced me to clean out my bike pouch to fill them with the orange version of  of the raspberries. (Golden Raspberries)    Currently,  she is making raspberry tarts out of creme cheese and puff pastry.  They are VERY good and highly addicting.   Hopefully we will be able to control ourselves a bit and avoid eating them all tonight.  ( there are a lot of berries to use up after all...)

Our daily haul..in the Fridge.

I'm rather excited about the next species of berries ripening up along the way.   The Black Berries are still green but ripening up steadily.

Black Berries are up next!

  And when they finally come into season...it will be EPIC!  There are so many of them growing wild out there that we could easily fill a 5 gallon bucket and not even touch the several dozen other "patches" located around the trail.   I'm not sure what it is about the wild grown black berry..but they are much sweeter ( my opinion) than the store bought ones or the ones at the farmers market.  My theory is that the harder the berry has to struggle,  the sweeter it becomes.

Baking is done....Let's Eat!

For aesthetics, we should have mixed up the colors. 

As I eat one of the puffs Cheryl has just put in front of me,  We both note that the orange raspberry is not quite as "flavor filled" as the black ones are.   They seem to be overpowered slightly by the cream cheese.   That being said,  they are still AWESOME and I find myself eating another one before I have the ability to finish this posting.

Still,  VERY tasty! 

Hope everyone is enjoying the day today.  If you happen to live in Iowa,  Enjoy the weather as much as possible....  it is a nice change from the heat and humidity we have been tolerating as of late.

Me Blogging.  And enjoying Tarts and Tea

Oh!  And if you have the chance....  grab a glass of ice water, scissors and an empty  bucket; and get out there and pick some wild
flowers and berries.   It really is a great time.   Whenever you discover the 4th dimension.... hiding somewhere in the hedgerow in your back yard...you want to share that with as many people as you can.