Seasonal Fruit : GARDEN FRESH : All That Razz

Once at a bed and breakfast in the Napa Valley, the woman of the house gave us a breakfast of popovers stuffed with whipped cream and raspberries. She’d picked the berries five minutes before. I cast sheep’s eyes at her hedge. It ran the length of the house against a white picket fence, was three feet deep, and ablaze with red berries. It was all I could do not to race out there and gorge myself till I fell over in a frenzy.

Out-of-hand, off-the-cane--that’s the way to eat raspberries. They weren’t meant to travel. Boxed and chilled and bumped and thumped, the morsels suffer. There’s nothing in the garden that tastes better warm from the sun than a fat raspberry. Nothing.

I joyously eat raspberries as offered by Mother Nature. But many of the wonderful things to eat in this world eaten with raspberries are transcendent.

Purple figs and red raspberries with powdered sugar and cream.

Poached nectarines with pureed raspberries, or peaches with raspberries--add ice cream, and it’s a Melba.

Raspberries drizzled with or dipped in chocolate.

A pool of sweetened raspberry puree around a plop of fresh cream cheese lightened with whipped cream.

Raspberries with orange liqueur. Or cherry liqueur. Or raspberry.

Red raspberries and red currants--simmered and sweetened, in a bowl surrounded by crustless slices of bread, weighted and chilled, then unmolded and garnished with fresh berries and cream: rosy red summer pudding.

Raspberries giving their warmth to vinegar--berries steeped in it, strained out, then the vinegar sweetened--delicious splashed over everything from leafy salads to roast chicken to fruit ices.

Red raspberry jelly with a scented geranium leaf in the jar.

But the most memorable raspberries I’ve had were with whipped cream and broken pieces of meringue. You sweep a spoonful into your mouth--there’s the cloud of cream, then the crunch of meringue, then the sweet sharp seedy velvety ribbon of raspberry.

You must grow them.

There are two sorts of raspberry plants. Those yielding small crops in July and then again in September are called everbearers. Heritage is a delicious and widely adapted favorite of this type. Those that bear one big crop right around now are called July bearers--Cherokee is one of these. It was developed to be especially tolerant of summer heat, a wise choice where summers are hot and winters cold. In areas where there is little winter chill, grow Bababerry, a tasty everbearer.

Everbearers are increasingly popular. You can let some plants crop twice, and the rest you can force to give one fine crop in autumn: run through the canes with a lawnmower after the leaves fall or before growth starts in spring.

Raspberries do best in full sun in a coolish humid climate. Elsewhere, they need extra TLC. In torrid heat, give them partial shade and mulch deeply to keep the soil cool--one of the most fruitful patches I’ve ever seen was in summer-hot Topanga Canyon. Although raspberries come in red, purple, gold and black, the reds are heaviest bearing, most heat-tolerant, and least bothered by disease. Once you’ve grown reds, try your hand at golds, then the other colors. (But unless you have virus-free stock, don’t grow reds and blacks together--sometimes reds carry a virus that kills blacks. Generally, if you can grow grapes and blackberries, you can grow red raspberries.

Soil must be rich in humus, well-drained, and kept constantly moist. Raspberries can’t flourish in clay, so add compost, well-rotted manure or peat, and buckets of earthworms. Don’t plant raspberries where potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants or peppers have grown recently, and don’t grow these crops near your raspberries--they have diseases in common. The only time my potato crop got sick was when they grew next to the raspberries.

Red raspberry plants are ornamental. In the landscape, when in leaf, a hedge is a tall fountain of green--undersides of leaves are lighter, so with the sun behind them, they’re iridescent. Although canes will be cut down or bare part of the year, their reddish brown catches the light. You might place raspberries at the back of the border--they’re a good barrier plant because of their thorns. But be vigilant in pulling up suckers. In good soil, you can set plants about two feet apart in rows four to six feet apart. Although I rarely like toy soldiers of rows in the garden, rows make prickly picking easy. Sturdy canes will support themselves, so you don’t have to deal with posts and wires (although if you want to, you can train vines vertically this way). A deep, heavy mulch keeps the soil cool and moist in summer and protects the canes in cold winters--they’re very hardy.

Birds diving for ripe berries before harvest have been our only problem. We’re largely generous and philosophical, trading our berries for their songs. But when the bluebirds, purple finches and black-headed grosbeaks grow as ravenous as I for raspberries, I throw netting over the bushes, though they can peck through it. The birds scold from the quince trees. I am in their bad books.

In Southern California, you can plant in fall, late winter and early spring--put a note on your calendar. It’s wise to get canes that are certified virus-free--you’ll save yourself trouble. The good news is that plants last 10 to 15 years. The bad news is that it takes two seasons before canes are in full sway. The best news is that these plants provide a lifetime supply of new canes--dig up suckers and replant them for new bushes.

Each plant will yield an average of a quart of berries per season. If you’d like to taste berries as they were meant to be tasted but a patch would be impractical, grow a couple of plants in a half barrel. You can embellish it with baby lettuces and rosy hues of stock and give it model care. For the fine points about raspberrying (which you need to know for maximum yield), consult a basic garden book or the pamphlet “Berries, Rasp & Black,” by Louise Riotte.

Pick berries when their color is richer and deeper than most around them, and when they pull easily off the cane. Do not rinse, and eat at once. Raspberries from the market must be rinsed, I suppose, but be quick about it.

Sources

Fresh: All markets now.

Bare-root canes: Available in planting season. Heritage and Bababerry from local nurseries; Cherokee from Nourse Farms, Box 485 RFD, South Deerfield, Md. 01373. The pamphlet “Berries, Rasp & Black” ($2.95) is available from Northwoods Retail Nursery, 27635 S. Oglesby Road, Canby, Ore. 97013.

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As lavish as it is, the following dessert is versatile. It can be served at the end of an elegant dinner in broad wine glasses, or passed in pottery bowls to end a rustic supper.

To hold their crunch, meringues for this recipe must be dense and the dessert served immediately. Since they keep well, the recipe makes more than twice as many meringues as you’ll need (you may cut the recipe in half). All elements can be prepared in advance. This is my version of a dessert I ate years ago at the Box Tree restaurant in New York City.

RASPBERRIES AND MERINGUES IN CREAM

2 cups fresh ripe raspberries

Sugar

Whipped Cream

12 (2-inch) Meringues, cut into bite-size pieces

Reserve 6 perfect berries. Mash remaining berries in bowl with fork about 1 hour before serving. Blend in sugar to taste (not too much).

At serving time, fold raspberry puree into whipped cream until blended, then blend in Meringue pieces. Turn at once into chilled dishes and top with reserved berries. Makes 6 servings.

Meringues

2 extra-large egg whites, warmed in shells in hot water before separating

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

Place egg whites in bowl and beat with mixer on medium speed with cream of tartar until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Add granulated sugar, beating on high speed, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract and beat 1 more minute.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over bowl. Blend in with rubber spatula, about 12 strokes.

Immediately drop mixture in rounded 1-tablespoon portions, mound abouts 1 inch apart, onto large baking sheet covered with foil, shiny-side-down. Bake on center rack of 225-degree oven 1 hour. Turn oven off, prop door open 1 inch and let meringues stand 4 hours to overnight. Meringues will be thoroughly crunchy, although they may be cracked.

Where air is dry, store in cool place. Where air is damp, store in tightly closed tin. Meringues keep for several weeks. Makes about 28 (2-inch) meringues.

Whipped Cream

2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat cream, sugar and vanilla extract in bowl until firm. Do not over-beat. Cream may be covered and chilled 3 to 4 hours. Before serving, whisk briefly to reblend.

Each serving contains about:

337 calories; 41 mg sodium; 110 mg cholesterol; 30 grams fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; trace fiber.