The Red Raspberry Patch

Although the Dogwood trees have come and gone, what an arresting sight they were for on to 3 weeks. What a show, looking through the still leafless, barren woods covering the hills, and seeing these pearl-white blossoms suspended in the trees, much as the last snowfall which was only 4 weeks earlier seemed to hang in the air before finally coming to rest.

And now, the red raspberries are blooming. And boy-oh-boy, aren’t there a lot of ‘em—more than I’ve ever seen here, in all my years in the Ozarks! The second year canes are thick with white, star-shaped flowers. Soon, there will be fat, ripe, crimson-red raspberries. I’m conservatively estimating there will be 10 gallons of fruit from my, some would say, “sadly lacking in cultivation” raspberry patch.

The young Catalpa tree standing as sentinel over the raspberry patch has surprises of its own. Only this week, the first flowers blossomed. And they surely are works of art. They make a pale white bonnet which frames the fine parallel purple stripes which form at the throat of the flower and flow forwards in squiggly lines to the face in the bonnet. On either side of the mouth are bright fuzzy golden twin tongues that end in ovary-shaped bulbs. The Catalpa will be quite showy in just a few days. And all the while I’m admiring the beautiful flowers and the broad heart-shaped leaves, I’m thinking---“What a fine amount of Catalpa worms will come forth to gorge on the leaves until they are big and fat and will make the world’s best catfish bait."

Lena, my sweetie, says she’ll help me put up the red raspberries. We’ll freeze lots for our breakfast cereal, and for desserts. We’ll can some as preserves. I can hardly wait to taste them!

The "Raspberry Patch" has been contributed by real estate agent Tommy Snow, an Arkansas native born in Mountain Home after his parents moved there to work on the two dam projects that became Bull Shoals and Norfork Lakes. Tommy is an avid historian and outdoorsman. He possesses a great insight into nature and it's beauty and also has an uncanny ability to convey that insight through his writings. Feel free to contact Tommy by email: tommy@ozarkpropertyforsale.com