Picking berries and making a pie is not something everyone enjoys doing or imagines doing. I'd wager that the majority of readers, even the cooks and the foodies (myself included) rely on berries cultivated in hydroponic beds for the luxury market , or fast frozen berries shipped in from northern climes and delivered to the supermarket freezer case.
It certainly wasn't always so. In fact, when I was a child it wasn't possible - except at a roadside fruit stand or perhaps in New York City - to find fresh berries for sale. You had to pick them.
And we did. From late June through the end of July my mother "volunteered" us for berry picking duty every evening. She asked us if we would like "to get in the car at dusk - since it was too hot during the day or maybe she was afraid to anger the farmers - and drive arounds the country roads looking for ripe Saskatoon bushes that were most often on private land. it wasn't exactly cool but most folk didn't really mind.
Picking berries when it's cooler is a good idea, but dusk in Saskatchewan in the height of summer means not only beautiful sunsets, but also dust, black flies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums and eventually pitch blackness. And picking berries at any time requires persistence through the thorns and the branches and the stinging insects. But when Mom asked there was course, there was only one possible answer - Yes Mom, I'd love to.
Occasionally my brother David or my cousin Brenda would come with us, but mostly it was just Mom and me traipsing around the open prairie. Our hair tied up in a bandanas, long pants and no gloves, sometimes a flashlight and buckets that could hold several gallons in tow. We'd get lost every time. Come home very dirty and sticky and sometimes, lucky.
I used to hate these outings and felt aggrieved that my older brothers were exempt. But now I cherish these memories and these experiences.
This summer we visited family in the interior of British Columbia. It was hot and too dry for berries - well past their season - but I was assured we'd find them on the high plateau near the cattle range. And we did find a few bushes but nothing like the berries from my younger picking days. We managed to get about 2 cups. Enough to make a pie. And I did.
If you ever get the chance to try these wild Saskatoons, I hope you take it. They may look somewhat like blueberries but they don't taste like them. Saskatoons are more closely related to apples and their seeds are what make them so earthy and special.
This recipe will do for any berry pie.
BT's Saskatoon Berry Pie
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe of Goldie's pastry crust
2 cups (480 grams) Saskatoon berries
3/4 cup (360 grams) sugar
4 teaspoons (8 grams) corn starch
dash of waters
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Directions:
Wash fruit thoroughly
Place the berries in cooking pot with the sugar and the salt
Turn burner on medium and cook for 2 minute stirring constantly
When fruit begins to bubble turn burner down to low and cover
Cook 2 more minutes
Mix a tiny bit of water with cornstarch to make a paste
Remove pot from burner
Take 1 tablespoon of the juice from the pot and add to paste to temper it
Mix thoroughly
Pour paste mixture into fruit and gently stir
Return to burner and cook on low until it thickens
Add lemon juice
Remove from burner
Taste for sweetness
If too sweet add a little lemon juice
If too tart, a little sugar.
Reserve blueberries in a dish - do not refrigerate
Roll out half the pastry dough and place in pie plate - preferably Pyrex
Pour berry mixture into unbaked shell
Roll out other half of pastry and cut into strips
Lay the strips diagonally across pie
Bake at 375 F. (190 C.) for 50 minutes or until filling begins to bubble
Remove from oven and let cool 15 minutes before serving
Enjoy! !בתיאבון
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