It's raspberry season y'all. That means that at least every two days you can find me drenched in sweat and armpit deep in the brambles growing along the side of the garage. Every year the raspberries put up more canes, which means the neighbors' level of anxiety over the unruly state of our yard no doubt increases, but, we also get more raspberries. I'll admit they're out of control when I can't get to that back garden plot anymore.

We eat them immediately, we eat them in fruit salad, we eat them in pie, and as compote on french toast. We make honey jam (made with Pomona Pectin, my favorite) and we add more and more handfuls of berries to the bag in the freezer. And we eat them as popsicles. Raspberries pureed with grade B maple syrup and a squeeze of lemon, and swirled with heavy cream. You need to make these. Recipe adapted from People's Pops. You will need:

• 1 pound (4 cups) fresh raspberries
• Squeeze fresh lemon juice
• ½ cup maple syrup (preferably grade B)
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Puree the raspberries, maple syrup and lemon juice in a food processor or blender until smooth. You can optionally strain out the seeds if you want (I leave them in). Pour into popsicle molds (I use these), leaving room for a tablespoons of cream in each mold. Using a popsicle stick or chopstick, swirl the cream down the sides of the mold without over-mixing. Freeze 4-5 hours or until solid.

Makes about 10 popsicles.

We weren't able to get to Big Rock on our official engagement night this year (July 9), but we made it out the next week. We've added a delicious BBQ place to our official engagement-versary itinerary, snapped some photos of the 4.5 of us in the clearing and then bid farewell to the mosquitoes and headed over to Dairy Joy. Hot fudge sundae with whipped cream, nuts and a cherry for me, please! See 2013 and 2014.