backyard berries

is there anything better than stepping out your back door* and returning with handfuls of fresh berries?  i'm not quite sure there is. 

at our old apartment, we had a huge raspberry patch in the backyard and driveway.  enough to make multiple batches of jam and fill our freezer (with more than a few to spare for a tasty snack for a certain berry-loving dog of ours).  in fact, that raspberry patch is one of the things i miss most about that place.  our new home came with a very small patch of fall raspberries, but luckily our old landladies were kind enough to allow me to thin out their berry patch a bit last spring.  so i've been working to fill ours in.  slowly but surely transplanting about 10 plants last spring and another 10-15 volunteer raspberry canes that popped up in my community garden this spring and hoping, in a few years' time, to have enough for backyard jam.  raspberries transplant very easily and they spread pretty quickly too.  if you look hard enough, you probably have some friends or neighbors willing to thin out theirs come next spring.

until i have a great big raspberry crop, though, i'll be content with a few handfuls here and there to top of some ice cream or morning cereal.  (or, just straight in my mouth, if we're being honest here!)

how do you enjoy your berries?

{*full disclosure: the strawberries are actually in my community garden, so i have to walk a couple of blocks to pick those. close enough, though, i think}