Raspberry Muffins. I made these last September (I had to check the date on the photo for that one), just swapping blue for rasp in my favorite muffin recipe. And I’ve been thinking about them all night.

So far this year I have been failing miserably with the fruit picking. I didn’t do anything at all for strawberry season, I made one sour cherry pie for July 4th (which was awesome), but my attempts at another magnificent sweet cherry pie with this year’s offerings crashed and burned. I haven’t been able to face blackberries this year after last year’s ill-advised decision not to go seedless with my jam (it lost me a jam competition and almost led to some costly dental work, but life is a learning curve). I now realize it is July 21st, and according to my trusty Pick Your Own calendar, it is the last day of regular raspberry season.

How did this happen?!

I had plans for raspberries this year. Jams, tarts, more muffins made with fresh rather than frozen berries this time. I haven’t even seen any fresh, local raspberries in the farm markets around here, and my usual spot for black raspberries seems to have completely disappeared over the winter (a Sandy casualty maybe?). Now I might miss all of that completely since I’ve never actually seen a local fall bearing raspberry.

I’ve got some research to do to find out if I’ve really dropped the ball on another fruit. I better not mess up the blueberries. Otherwise all my hopes and dreams are resting on peaches this summer. And they don’t make Sunday muffins this delicious.