There are certain tastes that are imbued to specific months, the separation of which would be as wholly unnatural as if the weather one expects that that time of the year was suddenly to be swapped with its polar opposite. Beyond the tiniest shadow of a doubt, when it comes to July, one of these tastes has always been that of slightly tart, gushingly juicy, endlessly delicious raspberries (which just have to be my all-time favourite fruit).
When I was growing up, my paternal grandparents kept rows of raspberries in their wonderful backyard garden, which I often helped them help bring inside by the plastic bowl or bucketful if I was visiting them during berry season (always popping a few just-plucked fruits into my mouth when grandma wasn't looking in the process). Once inside, some would be frozen, others turned into canned delights. Many were eaten as is (often with a little milk and sugar or whipped cream), and many more still found their way into my grandmother's scrumptious desserts, of which a sublime raspberry trifle was, bar none, her pièce de résistance.
Though those hot summer days, drenched in buttercup sunshine, of my youth (complete with berry juice stained fingers) are long behind me now, I still associate July with raspberries on a very deep level and, though they're a bit tricky for me to eat (due to some of my medical issues) these days, I continue to indulge in freshly picked British Columbia raspberries to this day, each and every time the seventh month of the year rolls around.
One of my favourite ways to savour the taste of raspberries is in a tall, cold summery drink, and so today, as the mercury climbs ever nearer to the very sun that's driving it through the roof in the first place, I wanted to share a thirst-quenching vintage recipe for Raspberry Mint Crush with all of you.
{This piece of paper might have seen better days, but the recipe itself has held up splendidly over the years and is just as timeless and wonderful a summer drink as you could ever hope to find. Image source.}
Should raspberries not be your cup of tea (or if they're hard to come by where you live), you can just as easily sub in blackberries, strawberries, currants, blueberries, or huckleberries instead (adjusting the sugar level as needed, depending on what fruit you use). Another (non-berry) summer fruit option that is nothing short of lip-lickingly awesome, is to use fresh peaches as the star of this terrific lemonade (here's a peach lemonade recipe that's very similar to my own).
I know that for me, part of the reason why raspberries are my absolute favourite fruit, even if I can no longer eat them with reckless abandonment, is precisely because of the treasured childhood memories I associate with them.
Beyond gathering berries from my grandparents' garden, I remember doing the same thing in the yards of some of our neighbours after my family moved to Penticton, and recall with the greatest of fondness, the marvelously yummy vats of raspberry (and her specialty, pear and raspberry) jam that my mom would whip up with the supply of fruit our neighbours so kindly lavished on us.
As we propel through the second half of July, I hope that you get the chance to indulge in at least one really great raspberry recipe this month, too. Be it an icy cold drink like this, homemade jam, trifle, or any other one of the truly countless ways raspberries can be put to work in the kitchen.
Happy raspberry eating - and should you be so lucky as to have your own backyard bushes, picking, everyone!
