Summer at Pip & Barrel starts with raspberries. We grow three varieties, Nova, Boyne, and Heritage, which together give us a long raspberry season that usually begins in late June or early July and carries well into summer.

The berries are bright, fragrant, and full of flavour with that classic balance raspberries should have: sweet upfront with just enough tartness to keep things interesting. Some are perfect eaten fresh by the handful, while others seem destined for baking, jam, or disappearing into a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

Raspberries are delicate fruit and a little less polished than some others, which is part of why we like them. They’re soft, intensely flavourful, and taste unmistakably like summer in a way that feels a bit nostalgic, whether you’re picking them for a pie, breakfast, or just because raspberries were impossible to walk past without bringing some home.